


The Unfortunate Losers

by Theweirdslingshot



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket, IT - Stephen King
Genre: IT-ASOUE crossover, Multi, asoue IT AU, lets see how this goes, this is going to be interesting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-01-13 06:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 29,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18462989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theweirdslingshot/pseuds/Theweirdslingshot
Summary: One rainy afternoon when Violet had a fever and Klaus was outside with friends, Sunny decided to go outside on her own. Only to meet a certain clown that took her away…Violet and Klaus, with the help of their friends, are starting to notice that something strange is going on in town. All these missing children, all these incompetent adults… something is not right, and it's up to the losers club to figure it out!A crossover between IT and ASOUE, we will see what this can lead to!





	1. 1. The very tragic start

Chapter 1: The very tragic start  
The little girl looked at her older sister with puppy eyes.  
"N-No, S-Sunny!" the older sister answered. Violet Baudelaire sat in the living room with a blanket around her.  
"Rainy?" Sunny Baudelaire said, which probably meant: "Why can't I go out and play?"  
"B-B-Because you a-are to-to-to-too li-little to be b-by your-your-yourself." Violet stuttered. "A-A-And I am to-too si-si-si-sick t-to co-come along whi-whi-with you."  
"Klaus?"  
"K-Klaus is ou-outside whi-with some f-f-f-friends."

Violet, Klaus and Sunny were orphaned some months after Sunny was born. They now lived in a small apartment with a foster dad named Olaf, who never seemed to be around that much. At this time, Violet had started stuttering more and more. When she was younger, she only stuttered when she was very exited or very sad or mad. But after their parents unfortunatetly lost their lives in a terrible fire, she had started to stutter more and more. Sunny barely remembered their parents and just lived her life as if it was nothing. She was about one and a half at this time and wanted to go outside to play. Why did she had to have someone to go with her? She could go on her own!  
"N-Now, you g-go and pla-play whi-with yo-your t-t-toys li-like a good li-li-little si-si-sister." Violet said with a tired voice.  
Sunny grinned and snuck away. She didn't want to play with her toys when the weather was so perfect. Cloudy with a high chance of rain, that was the best weather there could be for someone who ironically was named Sunny. She had to make a plan to get outside without Violet noticing. Well, Violet already had a fever, so that meant she would pay less attention than she usually did. Sunny just had to crawl to not be seen, something she learned early in this apartment.  
A while before Sunny could walk, their foster dad Olaf often was near to step on her.  
"God, baby!" he would yell. "You can't just lie there, I could kill you if you aren't careful." Even if that was an unpleasant memory, Sunny realised how useful it could be to crawl. Olaf wasn't home right now and had left Violet in charge, even if Violet clearly was too sick to take care of anything right now. Sunny was glad that she neither needed to get a diaper change or needed something off the shelf, because she was still too small to take care of any of that herself and felt really bad for Violet who had to help even if she had a fever. 

Sunny got her yellow raincoat as quietly as she could and peeked over at Violet. She had fallen asleep in couch. Sunny was so proud of putting her on her raincoat all by herself and thought for a second to wake her sister up to show her, but decided that this was her chance to go outside. The doorknob to the front door was really high up, but Sunny could almost reach it if she stood on her tippy toes. After several attempts, she managed to open the door and was met by a big sound of rain pouring down. The rain sound almost woke Violet up, which Sunny noticed and tried as fast as she could to get outside and close the door. Instead of looking if the door was properly closed, Sunny started to exitedly climb down the outside stairs to play in the rain. They lived on the third floor and it took about two minutes for someone as small as Sunny to get down without stumbling. When she finally got onto the ground, she wondered where to go next. That is when she saw the little worm crawling in the grass.

A worm is something that many people find disgusting, but Sunny was not one of them. It could be because of her age or that she was simply very curious about bugs and worms, like many toddlers are. Therefore, this was something to easily lure the little girl in the yellow raincoat. As she slowly started to follow this worm, she realised that it moved incredibly fast, much faster than worms are said to move. Sunny had to start to run to keep up.  
"Run worm!" she yelled, which meant: "Can you slow down, dear worm? I can't keep up!" Right as she yelled, she accidentally tripped on her little feet and fell.  
"You should be careful on those little toes" said a strange voice. Sunny looked up and saw a large, white-faced clown with silver clothes staring down at her. She got a little startled at first.  
"Don't be scared, little child." the clown continued.  
"Worm?" asked Sunny.  
"I am the worm!" the clown giggled. "I can be any animal I like! But I am also a clown! What are you, Sunny?"  
"Stranger" Sunny answered, which probably meant: "How do you know my name?"  
"Sorry, didn't I introduce myself? I am Pennywise the dancing clown!" The clown started to make funny faces which made Sunny laugh, not thinking one more time that it actually did not really answer her question. Suddenly, Pennywise had a balloon in its hand.  
"Balloon!" said Sunny and giggled.  
"Would you like to have a balloon?"  
"Ye!"  
"Would you like to float like the balloons?"  
"Huh?" Now Sunny was confused. What did Pennywise mean by "float like the balloons"?  
"I can make you float like the balloons!" Pennywise yelled exitedly. Before Sunny could answer, it had lifted her up.

"Sunny?" a familiar voice said. Across the street, a young boy in a blue raincoat and round glasses who just headed home from his friend's house. This was a boy that Sunny knew very well, namely her brother Klaus Baudelaire. He looked at her in deep confusion, wondering why she was held by a very tall clown.  
"Sunny!" called another voice, but from someone further away. On floor three, outside the apartment stood a sick Violet with a blanket around her, wondering where her sister might've gone.  
"Flying!" Sunny shrieked, not noticing her siblings at all. But Pennywise sure had seen both of them.  
"Do not worry dear siblings of little Sunny!" it yelled, just as loud for both Violet and Klaus to hear perfectly.  
"W-Why is there a c-c-clown..." Violet said to herself, wondering if her fever made her hallucinate.  
"I will make your sister float!" Pennywise countinued. Then, it started to open its mouth really wide and bet off Sunny's right leg.  
Sunny screamed in pain. Klaus stood there in complete shock, not knowing what to do and not knowing if this was real or not. Violet fainted next to the staircase. Pennywise jumped straight to Klaus.  
"And you will float too!" it screamed and started floating to the sewer drain nearby. "You'll float too! You'll float too!"  
It slided down the sewer drain with a screaming Sunny held in it's arms. Klaus fainted.

 

Klaus woke up by someone kicking his arm.  
"Why are you lying here for?" grunted an irritated voice. Olaf.  
"I..." Klaus began, before he completely froze, not really proccessing what had happened.  
"Why is your sister sleeping outside the front door?" Olaf yelled. "She has a fever! Did the baby lock you out? How dumb are you to be locked out by a baby?!"  
"Sunny..." Klaus suddenly realised. "Sunny!"


	2. Six months later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Quagmires come into the story and we learn about them a little bit.

"Before you all go out for a summer vacation" said miss Bass, staring out to the class in boredom, "you all will get your grades handed". She held a bunch of papers and began to stand up. "When I say your name, you come up and get your grade."  
"I hope I don't have to repeat a year" whispered Penelope List to Isadora Quagmire who sat in front of her.  
"I don't care about having to repeat a year." Isadora answered with a shrug. Penelope looked at her in boredom and started to talk to Carmelita Spats who sat behind her.  
"Aaron Bills" miss Bass yelled out, making the boy named Aaron go up and take his paper with his grades on.  
"Daniel Handler"  
"Jessie Glaser"  
"Claudia Less"  
"Penelope List"  
Penelope slowly walked up to take her paper, only for Carmelita to snatch it when she walked back to her seat.  
"How could you get an A in physics?" she yelled to Penelope. "Are you a nerd or something?"  
"Carmelita Spats."  
Carmelita stepped like a ballerina to miss Bass and took her paper with a teasing smile.  
"Duncan Quagmire"  
"Isadora Quagmire"  
"Quigley Quagmire"  
The three Quagmires stood up in unison, making some students giggle. Miss Bass almost threw each of their papers to them, making the triplets nearly drop them.  
"That was everyone" miss Bass said, "Have a nice summer."

The Quagmire triplets tried to get out of the school as fast as possible and sat down on a rock.  
"What did you get on math?" Duncan asked.  
"C plus" Quigley sighed.  
"Why are you so sad over getting a C plus?" Isadora asked a little harshly. "I almost got a D minus! Be proud of getting a C plus! C is good!"  
"No, Isadora, it's not!" Quigley yelled.  
"Well, I got a B..." Duncan smirked, making his siblings look at him in annoyance.  
"I atleast got an A in english!" Isadora said proudly.  
"Of course you did, you little poet!" Quigley teased.  
"Shut up with your teasing glee, I know you only got a C" Isadora answered.  
"But _C is good!_ " Quigley quoted. Isadora punched him lightly on the arm as an answer.  
Not far from the Quagmires, a boy and a girl walked in silence and they noticed them to be the Baudelaires. The Baudelaires, who six months earlier had lost their sister. Both of them claim that their sister was kidnapped, but couldn't explain why and how she was. "It was too weird to explain" they said. Duncan had an idea that their sister actually died, but they had a very hard time coping with it so they told themselves that she was still alive, just missing. He had been there. He knew what they have been through. Heck, he still sometimes felt like his parents would come back and knock on the door and take him and his siblings home again.

 

When the Quagmires were 5 years old, they sat in their living room in the large house they lived in with their parents. Quigley sat on the couch and looked through pictures in a photo album with his father, mr Quagmire. He pointed at every picture they came across and asked his father about it, and his father took the time and explained the meaning behind every picture, not even getting a little annoyed of his son asking so much.  
"This is your mother when she had a bat mitzvah." his father told him. "One day, you and Duncan will have a bar mitzvah and Isadora will have a bat mitzvah."  
"Will we have them at the same time?" Quigley asked in confusion.  
"We will sort it out when the time comes." his father laughed, patting him on the shoulder. They continued to look in another photo album, when Quigley pointed at these three babies who were all dressed in only diapers.  
"Who are those babies?" he asked. He actually did know the answer, he just liked hearing his father listening and answering him.  
"Why, those are you!" mr Quagmire laughed and Quigley nodded knowingly.  
"You're so stupid, Quigley." Isadora said, getting into the conversation. She lied on the floor, drawing. "I knew that it was us all along!"  
"I knew that too!" Quigley yelled.  
"Then why did you ask dad who they were?"  
"You are so mean, Isadora!"  
"Hey now, children." their father said. "What are you drawing, Isadora?"  
"Well..." Isadora began, suddenly forgetting her argument with Quigley. "This is me when I am grown up." She proceeded to point at a figure she drawn with short pointy hair, two dots for eyes and a very, very large smile (Isadora didn't draw a nose). The figure's hands was attached to the head and then there was a pear shaped body and two thin lines as legs. Overall, it was a classic drawing for someone who was five.  
"Who is that other person?" mr Quagmire asked, pointing at another figure that Isadora had drawn.  
"That is my best friend that I will live with!"  
"Who is your best friend then, sweetie?"  
"I don't know! But it's a girl!" Isadora exhaled with a smile.  
"Watch out!" a five year old Duncan screamed, rushing into the living room. He tripped over Isadora's feet.  
"You watch out, you darn poop!" Isadora yelled, feeling really satisfied with that comeback.  
"Little Duncan" their father said calmly "Why do you rush around the house?"  
"Mummy said that I would go in here because she was going to yell at some mean boys."  
"Mean boys?"

Mrs Quagmire had seen some boys starting a fire to a pile of leaves nearby the Quagmire's house. She tried to tell them that it was dangerous and that the fire could spread, but the youngsters didn't listen.  
"Don't be so boring" one of the boys laughed. "We have done this before and nothing have happened!"  
"I have three little children in my house!" mrs Quagmire yelled. "Please, for their and everyone's safety."  
"Wow, three children. Someone can't control themselves."  
"Excuse me?" Mrs Quagmire looked at the boys with anger in her eyes.  
"Oh... ok we... we'll put out the fire." shivered a boy.  
"Good." Mrs Quagmire went back inside.

But when she went back inside, the boys started laughing like she was some kind of idiot coming by to tell them that they shouldn't put cats in their mouth. One of the decided to throw a little match inside one open window to "prank" mrs Quagmire or something, then all of the boys ran away laughing. They of course didn't think so much of it, probably assuming the match would blow out by the time it had landed inside the house.

But it had not. The match was still as lit as the carpet it landed on started to become. The fire from the carpet continued onto the wooden floor and suddenly, the whole room was in flames. The whole family was in the living room and talked, not noticing anything. They assumed the burnt smell came from the boys outside. It wasn't until Quigley saw a "light" and asked if he could go investigate.  
"What light?" mr Quagmire asked, looking behind him.  
"The light over there!" Quigley giggled and pointed. His parents looked in his pointing direction and gave each other frightened faces.  
Mr Quagmire quickly walked to the light and ran as fast as he could back.  
"Children, outside! Now!"  
Isadora and Duncan proceeded to run outside without hesitation, because they didn't know what else to do. Quigley however, was a little more skeptical and just sat behind the couch. His parents did not notice that at first, because they were far too busy with getting Isadora and Duncan outside and calling the fire department.

"Where's Quigley?" mr Quagmire asked Isadora and Duncan when they successfully had come outside.  
"He didn't want to go outside." Duncan explained.  
"Oh, no..." their father sighed and ran back into the house. "I'll be back, children."  
Inside, Quigley had an argument with his mother.  
"You have to go outside, Quigley!" his mother tried to explain.  
"No!" Quigley screamed. "I want to stay inside!"  
"But honey, there's a fire in the house!"  
"I don't care!"  
"We don't have time to discuss this!" his mother yelled. She picked him up, which made him scream, becuase he hated to be touched without warning.  
Mr Quagmire ran in right before the front door started to slowly catch fire. He looked at his wife with a struggling and screaming Quigley in her arms. Before anyone could react, she placed Quigley on the ground and as fast as she could dragged him outside the front door.  
"I wanna be inside!" Quigley yelled. "Inside! Mummy!"  
"No!" his mother yelled, and with that, the front door suddenly got closed by the wind.

That was the last word any of the Quagmire triplets ever heard from their mother. The door had catched on fire as fast as it closed, trapping the parents inside. They tried to jump out the windows without any luck. The newspaper called this "a very peculiar fire indeed".

And so, the Quagmire triplets were orphaned. After four different foster homes and monthly trips to a psychologist, they managed to survive and move on.

The first foster home was with a very kind jugde named Justice Strauss (her first name was not "Justice", but the triplets never ever called her by her actual name). They lived with her for about 13 months. She was the one who taught them to read and write. The triplets often used her large library to read all kinds of books. Of course, since they were very young, they struggled to read most of the books, but the more they read the more words they learned. Isadora really took an advantage of this in school. She, who previously used "poopy face" and "stupid" as insults could now insult people on the playground with even more grown up words, like "miscreant" and "lickspittle". It wasn't long until she managed to read the more adult books and started to slowly swear, so Justice Strauss had to hide those books before Isadora could learn anymore bad words.  
Her library was an escape for the triplets to cope with their parents deaths. It was really something special.

But the fun could not last forever as the social workers decided that the Quagmire triplets would be moved to a new home, because they felt the area Justice Strauss lived in was too dangerous for children. Their next foster home was with a widow named miss Kaspbrak. Miss Kasbrak was a large woman that had lost her husband in sickness, and had also miscarried her unborn child not long before. Therefor, she was very overprotective of the triplets during their time with her. She tried to tell them that they all easily could get sick and had to take medicine (the medicine was really placebo, but the children didn't have to know that, she thought). This backfired very quickly, becuase Isadora refused to eat any kind of medicine and Quigley was very skeptical to why they suddenly had to take medicine when they did not have to do it before.  
But Duncan was someone who you easily could tell what to do. He was so scared of doing wrong that he basicly did anything you told him. He took the placebo medicine like a drug, making miss Kasbrak very proud of him. Every time he took a pill or used an inhaler, she looked teasingly at Isadora and Quigley, as if to say:  
" _Look at your brother, behaving and doing as he is told. Look how proud I am of him. I could be proud of you too if you took your medicine. But you decided to misbehave, and therefor you are very naughty._ "

Fortunately, people started to find out about this force-feeding of medicines, even if it was placebo, and the social workers decided that she was not a suitable guardian. She did leave an imagine for Duncan however, who still to this day sometimes could feel like barely stepping outside would make him sick.

Now, the third home was the home the triplets stayed in the longest. It was with a very fashinonable lady named Esme Squalor. She lived in a large house that looked like a mansion from outside. She only wanted it to look that way because she was, as mentioned, very fashionable. You could think the Quagmire triplets could get and do what they wanted, but no. Esme was very strict about where they could go, what they would wear and what they could do. So through the ages of about 8 to 11, the triplets looked like weird siblings that dressed the same in black and white clothes and had the ugliest bowl haircuts. Sometimes she would dress Isadora in ugly yellow or pink dresses and big bows in her hair because "she looked to much like a boy". The only dress Isadora actually enjoyed was a black dress that resembled the dress that Wednesday Addams wore. She didn't care that Esme forced her to wear a white bow in her hair for wearing that dress, but it really felt like her.  
Quigley was the triplet that was cared the least for Esme's strict rules. He liked to have some rules to follow and felt very fancy in the clothes he was put in. Esme had multiple times told him that he was probably her favourite, since he never complained about anything and actually seemed to enjoy to follow rules and dress in fashionable clothes.  
About a year ago, the Quagmires moved again to a new guardian. This was because Esme got a new job and the social workers thought that "she wasn't home enough to take care of the children". Even if Esme wasn't their guardian anymore, Quigley still seemed to like dressing up in well-dressed clothes and even made sure that everything, whether if it was his school work or his room, was kept clean and nice.

Their latest guardian was a pretty grumpy man named Nero, who was always too busy with practising on his violin to talk to them. But since "he worked at home" the social workers found him to be a good fit for the children. The triplets didn't care so much if he rarely saw them, because they had learned to be independent through the years. Nero also had a cleaner and a chef, so food and clean clothes was not a problem. And school was pretty close to walk to and from, as well as their appointments with the psychologists they saw less and less for each year that passed. They could basically do what they wanted, as long as they were home before 7 pm (as requested by the police now that many children started to get missing).

"Should we talk to them?" Duncan asked, looking at the Baudelaires. "They look really sad."  
"I don't know" Isadora answered.  
"Yeah, it feels like they want to be alone." Quigley added, but looked as if he did not agree with what he just said.  
"Can't we at least ask them if they want to do something?" Duncan asked.  
Isadora sighed. "Alright then. I do feel a little bad for them anyway." She started to stand up. Before she proceeded to walk to the Baudelaires, she grinned. "Besides, Violet's eyes look like they sparkle in the sunlight!"  
"How can she see how Violet's eyes look like from all the way over here?" Duncan whispered to Quigley while Isadora skipped away to ask the Baudelaires if they wanted to hang out.  
"No idea, brother" Quigley answered with a confused face. Although, he thought he had an idea how Isadora could see that, declined that idea quickly.  
Isadora came running back.  
"Violet said that she would happily hang out with us tomorrow in the Barrens!" she exclaimed happily.  
"And Klaus?" Quigley asked with a grin.  
"Oh.. uh, Klaus wants to go too, although he first wants to look at something in the library so he will come a little later than his sister."  
"And what time will the come?" asked Quigley, who wanted to have everything in control.  
"I think around 11 am. We'll bring some sandwiches for lunch if we get hungry."  
"Sounds great!" Duncan said with a smile.

Then, the three triplets walked home, still not knowing about the dangers this town held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I noticed there were over 2000 words, but I've read chapters with longer…  
> Enjoying it this far! Took a while to write this chapter.  
> We'll see if the triplets ever get bar (or bat) mitzvahs. It would be fun to do a kind of scene like Stanley did in the deleted scene of IT 2017 (why did they even delete that? It was his time to shine and they just removed it!) . I actually googled how they do bat/bar mitzvahs for twins and triplets, and it could both be two at the same time or just one per week, depending on how large the synagogue is. IF they do it, Quigley and Duncan would have a bar mitzvah at the same time and Isadora would get her own bat mitzvah. That, or each of them get their individual. We will see.   
> For the next chapter, we will probably get our first scare scene…


	3. Our first scare?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus goes to the library for some research. Hope everything goes well!

Chapter 3: Our first scare?

　

9 am in the morning. Klaus had been up about two hours already. His sister just awoke and sat in the kitchen eating a toast.

"Remember that we're gonna hang out with the triplets today." Violet said while looking really tired.  
"Ah yes," Klaus answered. "But I will maybe come a little later, because i'm going to the library."  
"Where did you say you were going?" a deep voice called.

Behind Klaus stood the man the Baudelaire siblings lived with, a large skinny man named Olaf. For the last six months, he had been really strict to where the Baudelaires was.  
Klaus had not really been that bothered by it, considering everything that's happened during the last months, but he had noticed that Violet started to get more nervous around Olaf. She had started to study much harder for tests, trying to not make so much noise and he could even swear that Violet had cried multiple times in her room. He tried to ask her about it several times, thinking that it may be about their sister Sunny.  
"Yeah... yeah... Sunny. It's Sunny." she would answer while biting her lip.

The dissapearence of their sister had effected them both very hard, because they both saw the same thing. But it was so hard to explain what excactly it was that they saw. Violet had a fever that day, so she had a lot of thoughts about how it maybe could have been a fever dream or a hallucination in cause of her fever. But Klaus had been all good and had spent the day with the Quagmire triplets, playing monopoly at their place. He saw the same thing as Violet when he was walking home, but he didn't have a fever? He DID catch Violet's fever later, but that day when Sunny got kidnapped, he barely had a cold.  
Sunny got _kidnapped._ They were sure of it. Even if they couldn't explain it. Olaf did not think so however, claiming that the baby probably was dead. He was always very agressive and could say things directly out loud without thinking twice. But he never harmed the children in any way, nor did he drink or take drugs. He was just a very angry person in general and Klaus thought Olaf just did what was best for them, just like his parents did for him before they died and they ended up in Olaf's care.

Now, Olaf stood in front of Violet and Klaus.  
"What are you going to do today?" he asked rather harshly.  
"I am going to the library." Klaus answered with a shrug, since he had learned that Olaf really wasn't angry when he asked this. He just wanted to know.  
"How long are you going to be in the library?"  
"For about two hours or so, then i'm going to meet Violet and the Quagmire triplets." Klaus noticed that this made Violet look rather frightened.  
"The Quagmire triplets?" Olaf asked and gave Violet a questioning face.  
"W-We will b-bring s-sa-sandwhiches for lu-lunch." Violet stuttered. She often stuttered a lot more when Olaf was around than when they were alone. In school for example, Violet would barely stutter at all.  
"Don't hang around with those kids too much." Olaf said. "I don't want them to give you any bad influences."  
"What do you mean?" Klaus asked, looking rather confused. He did not understand why Olaf was against the Quagmires.  
"Those triplets have some rumors that I don't want you to get." Olaf groaned. He then proceeded to place his hand on Violets head.  
"Nice girls like you, Violet, should never have those rumors about yourself." he started pointing to Klaus. "Neither would you, Klaus."  
The way he said it to Klaus felt more careless. When he said it to Violet, it was more of a reassuring that _it would be awful it nice and pretty Violet got some bad rumors,_ but with Klaus it was more like _oh yeah, Klaus... you don't want bad rumors about yourself, so uh... be nice and don't be stupid?_

Klaus didn't think much about it and proceeded to pack his sandwhich in his backpack and walked away to the library. On his way he felt this weird suspense, like something was following him. Thinking that it only was his imagination though, he just whistled happily all the way to the library.

The library was the one place that never changed. No matter how many years passed by, there was still the same old shelves of books, all waiting to be borrowed and then to be returned. Klaus passed the childrens aisle and noticed all the little children listening to the story of little red riding hood. He saw the suspence in their eyes when the old librarian read that little Red Riding Hood opened the door to her grandmothers house. Would she see that it was the big, bad wolf lying in the bed? Klaus giggled quietly as he walked by. __  
Sunny would have enjoyed it here.  
For how long he had wanted to bring his little sister here. He wanted her to feel the same joy that he and Violet felt when they were here for the first time. Klaus was about three at the time and going to the library was one of his earliest memories. He had remembered how he and Violet sat and listened to the story of _The three Billy Goats Gruff._ The suspence when one of them walked over the brigde and the troll under would yell " _WHO'S THAT TRIPPING OVER MY BRIDGE?"._ He remembered looking through picture books and Violet "reading" to him (although she was around five and could not really read at the time, so Klaus had figured that she must've made up the story by looking at the pictures).

Since Sunny was born, Klaus had been waiting to take her everywhere. He wanted to basicly be her guide to every place imaginable. They would have gone all around town and he would have pointed out to her where to go and where not to go. Then one day, when she was his age, she would have friends of her own that she could take to all these places where they could play alone and share all kinds of secrets. But Klaus especially wanted her to be introduced to the wonders of the library, where she could see how stories can change peoples life for better and for worse.

_Sunny._ That's right. That's why Klaus was here in the first place. To find out the mystery of what happened to Sunny. She had just been one in many children that had gone missing in the past few months and could not have been a coincidence. Klaus had heard two teachers discuss the incidents a couple of weeks ago.

"Wasn't it some incident with missing kids when we were youngsters too?" asked one of them to the other.  
"Oh yeah... 27 years ago with that Hector kid. And that little farmer boy named Elwyn." answered the other one.  
"God, I miss Elwyn." the first one said, wiping a tear.

After overhearing their discussion, Klaus started wanted to poke around after articles from 27 years ago, but he didn't have the time until now. Now, where would they keep old newspapers?  
"Excuse me" he asked a librarian. "Where do you keep newspaper articles?"  
"We have them stored in the right aisle over there. Is there any particular article you are looking for?"  
"Yes... I am looking for any articles that was published around 27 years ago."  
"Alright, follow me and I can see if I find it for you."  
Klaus was relieved because the librarian didn't ask any questions. She did not even comment "wow that is specific" like he thought she would. Instead, she just walked to the aisle where they stored all the newspapers during the years. It took pretty fast.  
"Do you want the whole package of newspapers?" she asked.  
"If that's okay?" answered Klaus and blushed.  
"Well, no one else is in need for these books right now so I guess it's ok." she muttered and gave him a bunch of newspapers. Klaus said thank you and ran off to a table.

He had searched through some of the newspapers and hadn't found anything that peculiar about them. The only thing that was a little odd was this random article about a book club for children aged 10-13 that read really gory and adult books.

Twenty minutes later, he finally found something. _Several missing children found in a slaughter house_

_Published April 5th 19..._

The last two number were very blurry, but since this was in the box of articles from 27 years ago, it must be the year Klaus thought it was.

_For the past months, the police with the help of the volunteer detective department, had tried to search for all the children gone missing in a short time period. These children include:_  
_Twins Jacques and Kit Snicket, age 10_  
_Yessica Haircut, age 13_  
_Persimonny Glitchet, age 12_  
_Hector Love, age 7_  
_Elwyn Goldstein, age 9_

_All of the children mentioned was found one by one about yesterday in the middle of the night in the old slaughter house outside of town. One of the volunteers, who wants to remain anonymous, had noticed a strange smell when he searched the area outside of town. He decided to look inside the old slaughter house, only to find something that will haunt him for an eternity._

_Inside the slaughter house lied several corpses, all small enough to be corpses of children. Blood was scattered all across the floor, as well as chopped off body parts (most notably: a little leg, who the police believes to either be the leg of Hector Love or Elwyn Goldstein, see picture on page 8)_

Klaus could not bear to read any more about the gory details and decided to look for other articles. He tried to not think about how it would look like to open an abandoned house and finding dead bodies inside. Seeing people, people that once _lived_ , suddenly lie there brutally dead. It frightened him.

Suddenly, Klaus heard a giggle. He just thought it was a little kid reading a funny book in the children's aisle, but this giggle was much closer to where he was.

He heard it again. And again. No one else near him seemed to be bothered by this. Once again a giggle. It sounded like the giggle you hear from very small children. _The kind of giggles Sunny used to make._

Klaus decided to get up and investigate. He thought he heard it from just the other aisle. But when he walked over, he found nothing. He began to think he was just imagining things, when suddenly...

"Klaus?"  
"Huh?" Klaus started to shiver. Did someone actually say his name?  
"Klaus!" the voice almost yelled.

Klaus looked forward and just about across the room, right where the storage room was, sat a little girl and looked right at him. She looked to be about one and a half years old and had just a small set of hair that either was blonde or brown, it was not clear yet. She also wore a yellow raincoat, even it the weather outside was really sunny... wait.  
"It can't be..." Klaus whispered to himself. Then he saw the little girl waving at him, sticking out her leg. Only that... she only had one leg. The other one was completely gone.

"Sunny..." he realised, not fully believing what he saw. The little girl nodded, as if she had heard him from that distance, and started to crawl into the storage room the best she could.

Klaus was so confused. Had his mind made this up? Or was his little sister actually here? Did she actually come home again?

He slowly walked to the storage room, his heart thumping in his chest really heard. With a shaking hand he pulled up the storage room door. Nothing but a dark corridor of lockers and boxes. Did his brain pull a trick on him? Did he miss Sunny so much that he made up that she was right there?

"Here!" a voice shrieked. Klaus looked to his right, finding the little girl he saw before sitting on the floor smiling. It really looked like Sunny. It looked so real.  
"Sunny?" he asked carefully.  
"Close door." said Sunny.

Klaus closed the door carefully, but not all the way in case it locked itself from inside and he got stuck.  
"Is it really you, Sunny?" he wispered, almost tearing up.  
"Here!" Sunny shrieked, which probably meant: "It's me! I have been here all along!"  
"I..." Klaus didn't know what to say.  
"Come." Sunny muttered, which suprised Klaus.  
"Why should I come?" Klaus started to feel like something was not quite right.  
"Floating." Sunny whispered, which meant: "Come with me and you will float too."

Klaus looked at her in confusion and with tears. He did not know how to react. He noticed how Sunny started to become more and more angry in her face.  
"What's wrong, Sunny?" he asked carefully. Sunny was rarely angry. One reason their parents named her Sunny was because of a happy baby she was.  
"Clown." Sunny said and started to drag in a wire that Klaus could swear was not above her before.

Klaus looked up and found a large hand holding in a bunch of wires. The owner of the hand started to laugh quietly.  
"Who are you?" Klaus started to feel a little frightened.  
"Why, I am Pennywise the dancing clown." said the voice lurking from the shadows.

Suddenly, Sunny wasn't a human anymore, but a puppet missing one leg. Klaus stepped back.  
"What's the matter, bookworm? You don't want to see your little sister perform in a puppet show?"

The clown jumped down from the ceiling, throwing the puppet Sunny away. It grabbed Klaus in his sweater, making Klaus panic.  
"I can make you a puppet too!" Pennywise giggled. "You can be with your sister who misses you very much! You will float too!"

Klaus tried to get away, but Pennywise was far stronger. So he did something that Sunny used to do to him whenever she did not want to get a diaper change or get into bed. He bit Pennywise in the arm.  
Pennywise loosened his grip a little bit, shivering. Klaus knew he did not have much time. He took all of his strenght and managed to somehow drop out of Pennywises grip and crawled on the floor in panic. Pennywise took grabbed his shoe.  
"Don't think you can flee, boy!"

But right as Klaus was dragged back in, he heard a librarian outside.  
"Why is the storage room open?"

He was very close to the door. Just a little push and he would be out. He held himself stuck to the floor and tried to push himself to the door from underneath.

And in the right second, Klaus managed to tip lightly on the door for it to open a little more. Pennywise must've been suprised by this, because he suddenly let loose of Klaus. So Klaus of course ran out and immidiately hit a librarian.

"Young boy! Why were you in that storage room?"

Klaus was too panicked to answer and just ran off to the table he was reading on. He decided that it would be enough researching for today.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so I go with both book canon and movie canon IT when I am writing this. Also, I thought that I would go with Sunny's hair to resemble her look from the books, also because I find it a little funny that everyone, including myself sometimes, pictures Sunny as blonde when she in the cover art looks dark haired.  
> When writing out the "old" missing kids, I just randomly wrote out names. Hector and Elwyn does not have any last names in canon, so I made up some for them (Elwyn is a character that was briefly mentioned in The Austere Academy once, if anyone is asking).  
> Next chapter will be a little happier, with some bonding between the Quagmires and the Baudelaires!


	4. Quagelaires or Baudemaires?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Quagmire-Baudelaire bonding.

Chapter 4: Quagelaires or Baudemires?

　

"Where's Violet?" Isadora muttered.  
"Have patience, sister" Quigley laughed, looking at Isadora with a teasing smile. "Something maybe happened on the way here."  
"Don't say that!" Isadora screamed.  
"Hush." Duncan shushed her.

"Hey Quags!" called a voice from up the road. The triplets looked behind them and saw a girl with a purple dress run down to the Barrens to greet them.  
"Violet." Isadora said. "That's a nice dress."  
"Th-Thank you." Violet answered proudly. "My foster dad b-bought it for me. He said that it would look 'decent' to wear it when you are go-go-going out."  
"That is a very weird way to explain why you should wear a dress" Duncan said and raised an eyebrow.  
"I've noticed you've started stuttering less, Violet!" Isadora giggled. Violet blushed slightly.  
"Well, I... I feel better."  
"That's great, Violet." Quigley smiled awkwardly.

Everyone then just stood in silence for a while, not knowing what to say. It was like Violet was a total stranger that was forced by a teacher to work with the Quagmires on a group project, rather than a friend that they invited to hang out with because they wanted to.

Klaus was the one of the Baudelaires that most often would hang out with the Quagmires, while Violet could go with him sometimes, but never alone. The last time she had been alone with the Quagmires was a very long time ago, presumably when they were children. When the Baudelaires parents died, the Quagmire tried to be with them a lot to make them feel comfort (and also because the Quagmires had similar experiences).   
However, they were very awkward and unsocial children (especially Duncan and Quigley. Isadora had a tendency to live through her awkwardness by talking even more until she eventually forgot what made her feel awkward in the first place). This made them not knowing what to say to comfort the Baudelaires when they felt down. Although, they felt like the Baudelaires knew they cared and tried their best. These things were hard to talk about, everyone knew that.

But then, when Sunny Baudelaire mysteriously got missing, the Quagmires got more and more distant to both Klaus and Violet. This was not because of anything they've done, but just simply that the Quagmires did not know how to deal with the issue. They were open for the Baudelaires to talk to, but the Baudelaires could barely talk about it with each other. It all lead to all five of them not hanging out as much.

Duncan was the first to say something again after the silence.  
"I think it's a little thrilling to play down here. Some adults find it dangerous for children to even walk here."  
"Yeah, like Miss Kaspbrak." Quigley said teasingly.  
"Oh my..." began Violet, smiling at the triplets. "I remember Miss Kasbrak! You lived whi-with her when you were like... eight, r-right?"  
"We moved in there when we were seven and one month." Duncan said. "And moved out when we just turned eight."  
"She made a big inprint on Duncan." Isadora whispered to Violet.  
"If she found out that we today were playing down here..." said Duncan with a nervous giggle "...then she would've taken us to the doctor in panic."  
"And then the doctor would laugh at her for being so stupid!" Isadora exclaimed and started to jump in the various puddles that were nearby where they all stood.  
"Isadora, if you even think about pouring water at me..." yelled Duncan, before he got a huge splash from Isadora jumping in the puddle nearest where he stood, making his knees get all soaked.  
"Sorry!" Isadora laughed teasingly.

"Hey, where did all these puddles come from?" Quigley asked.  
"Why bother where they came from when you can just enjoy that they're here!" Isadora answered while still jumping around.  
"Yeah, but... it hasn't rained lately?"  
"Maybe it's magical puddles!" Violet said jokingly.   
Suddenly, Isadora started laughing like crazy.  
"Was it that funny?" Violet asked in confusion.  
"No!" Isadora laughed, trying to calm herself down. "It's just... i don't know!"  
Suddenly, Quigley joined in and started laughing too. Violet and Duncan just stood there not knowing what to do, until Violet also started laughing.   
"What's so funny?" Duncan asked. No one answered him, they just continued laughing.   
At last, Duncan joined the laughing party.

All four of them laughed about nothing for a great time. No one really knew what even was so funny. They probably just assumed everyone got smitten by each others laughs and then no one couldn't stop. It was like they forgot the awkwardness before.

"Why aren't we hanging out more often?" Duncan snorted after they finally calmed down.  
"I don't know" Violet replied, "We used to p-play a lot in elementary school, but we kinda drifted apart."  
"That's life, I guess." Isadora said. Everyone gave her a strange look. She blushed. "Sorry! I did not mean it like that!"  
"It's okay, Isa." Violet said calmly. Isadora blushed even harder.

"Is that Klaus?" Quigley suddenly said, pointing at a boy in glasses walking slowly on the sidewalk.  
"Klaus!" Duncan yelled, "We're down here!"  
The boy with the glasses reacted immidiately and turned to Quigley, showing that he was in fact Klaus and not some look-alike. He slowly made his way down to the barrens, greeting everyone.

"Hi." he panted.  
"Are you okay, Klaus?" Isadora asked, "You look like you saw a ghost."  
"I am..." Klaus took a deep breath. "I'm fine."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yeah... anyway, what have you been doing?"  
"Nothing much." Duncan snorted, "We have just... talked."  
"I see." Klaus said and started to look around. "Why are there puddles here?"  
"Don't you dare laugh again!" Quigley screamed and almost tackled Isadora.  
"I promise I won't!" Isadora yelled as a response, but had a huge smile on her face.

The gang decided to sit down to eat their sandwhiches that they had with them, as it was almost lunch time. Everyone sat directly on the ground except Duncan, who didn't want to get dirty.  
"Remember when we were like seven?" Isadora asked while chewing on her sandwhich, "and I stole a book that Miss Kaspbrak had hidden in her living room?"  
"I have a tiny memory." Quigley answered.  
"Yeah" Isadora continued, "Miss Kaspbrak was so overprotective, so it was hard to take something and hide it. When she was upstairs doing laundry, I snuck the book out and when she went downstairs, I ran up."  
"Wait, I remember this." Duncan said.  
"Yes. Anyway, she was very suspicious as to why I _ran_ up. I told her it was no reason, but she could tell I was hiding something. So as she went up to ask me, I hid the book behind the bathroom door and went into my room. Therefore, when she greeted me she assumed I had hid something _in my room._ "  
"I see where this leads to." Violet said, but looked like she was really investigated in the story.  
"Yes." Isadora giggled awkwardly, "anyway, she obviously didn't find anything and went back downstairs. So I could easily grab the book from behind the bathroom door and then read it in peace."  
"Isadora, was this the book about puberty? And all that stuff?" Quigley asked.  
" _And all that stuff?_ " Isadora mimiced. "Well, yes. Puberty was only one chapter though."  
"Wait, was it that day you gathered everyone to inform about what will happen when we grow older?" Klaus asked nervously, as if he remembered that as something unpleasant.  
"Yup!" Isadora said and smiled happily.

"Geez" Duncan said, "I remember you reading that late at night and giggling like a maniac."  
"And then you said that you weren't gonna tell us until we came to school the next day." Quigley added.  
"So that was a tense morning." Duncan snorted, making everyone giggle a little bit.

"I remember wh-when you sat behind that rock at recess." Violet said, looking into space. "You whi-whispered how this was new i-information that no one in the world had known about b-b-before."   
Everyone laughed slightly as Isadora blushed.  
"I don't recall I said those words... exactly."  
"That's what I remember." Violet replied while smiling.  
"Yeah, Isadora." Quigley added, "You always had a thing for explaining overdramatically."  
"Well, I didn't get an A i english for nothing." Isadora answered teasingly.

"By the way, Isadora, do you still write poems?" Violet asked.  
"Of course." Isadora replied and smiled with her teeth full of food.  
"Yeah, she has a notebook full of poems!" Duncan said.  
"I'd love to read some!" Violet exhaled, before calming herself and looking at Isadora awkwardly, "If you have it with you, of course."  
"As a matter of fact, I have." Isadora said proudly. She was glad that someone was interested in her poetry, although she also felt a little embarrased by some of it. She did not think about that twice though, and proudly got her notebook from her backpack and handed it to Violet.

Violet started to read loudly.

"To eat cake is like having friends  
you never know how quite it ends

Altough I rather eat a bowl of vampire bats  
than spend an hour with Carmelita Spats."

Everyone started to laugh slightly.  
"Has Carmelita done anything recently?" Klaus asked. "It's been a while since her personality has bugged my soul."  
"Nah, she has been pretty chill for the past months." Quigley replied.  
"Here's another good one!" Violet said.

"Your hair is winter fire  
January embers  
My heart burns there too"

"Wait..." Duncan said and looked at Isadora in confusion. "I thought you said that poems have to rhyme?"  
"I said that SONGS have to rhyme!" Isadora explained. "This is a haiku, where rhyming is not necessary."  
"Who is it for?" Quigley asked.  
"No one."  
"So you wrote a love poem for no one?"  
"That's right." Isadora started to blush.  
"Are you sure there was no person in your mind when you wrote this?" Quigley asked teasingly."  
"Quiglefort, I can assure you that this was just a random poem I wrote with no one in mind!"

"Quiglefort" was a nickname that Isadora gave Quigley whenever she felt embarrased by him or when she was angry with him. Quigley had learned this by now and could choose to keep teasing his sister or just stop. This time, he chose to stop.  
"Shall I r-read another one?" Violet asked to change the subject, and everyone nodded.  
  
_"There is absolutely nothing fake  
about swimming in a nice, clear lake"_

"That's a couplet!" Klaus exhaled.  
"Oh, now I want to swim in the lake" Quigley sighed.  
"So why don't we?" Isadora said, standing up, "Today is pretty cold, but tomorrow is a very warm day!"  
"Yeah, let's do it!" Duncan yelled exitedly, almost a little too loud. "The Quagelaires on an adventure!"  
"Quagelaires?" Klaus said, "More like Baudemires."  
"We'll discuss it later." Duncan answered, "Violet, what do you think about going to swim in the lake?"  
"Yeah..." Violet said, looking slowly at the ground.  
"Is something wrong, Violet?" asked Klaus.  
"No-no-nothing!" Violet stuttered. She always stuttered more easily when she got nervous.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes!"

Isadora leaned into Violet.  
"Is it something you are worried about?" she whispered.  
"No...?" Violet whispered back, looking a little confused.  
"So it isn't something...?"   
"Isadora, w-what are you trying to say?"  
"You know..." Isadora looked down, "Do you have your...?"  
Violet started to realise what Isadora was hinting at, but didn't say anything in case she mistaken the hint.  
"You don't have to be ashamed." Isadora said.  
Ok, she definetly did not mistake the hint.  
"You can bathe without tampons, you know." Isadora continuted.  
"Sch!" Violet shushed.  
"You only really need them in pools, but in lakes..."  
"Ok!" Violet exhaled quietly, "I get w-what you are trying to say."  
"Great." Isadora smiled awkwardly. Violet could not help to smile back.   
"You can talk to me if you need some girl to girl talk." Isadora whispered and stroked Violets hair. "We only hang out with boys. They don't understand anything."  
Violet started to laugh quietly.

"What are you laughing about?" Quigley asked.  
"Girl things." Isadora teased and put her arm around Violet.  
"Alright then." Quigley rolled his eyes, but smiled.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a while to finish this. I wrote a lot of things that didn't lead anywhere, so I had to rewrite some conversations and so on. I made Violet like a mixture of Bill and Beverly, and sometimes I tend to forget that she sometimes stutters. So I made it so she stuttered much less when she was with people she was comfortable around, than with for example Olaf, where she stutters a lot more because she doesn't feel safe around him.  
> Also, Carmelita will show up a little more and I will explain a little why the characters have a grudge for her. She is not Henry Bowers of course, but more of like how Gretta was in movie.  
> Hope you are enjoying this fanfiction so far!


	5. The incident with the sink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Violet and Klaus walk home, Violet needs to buy some things at the pharmacy. Later that evening, she has an incident with a sink...

Chapter 5: The incident with the sink

　

"See you later, Bauds!" Isadora yelled, waving her hand while walking away.  
"Bye!" Klaus and Violet replied in unison. Then they turned around and walked in the other direction.

Violet and Klaus had hung out with the Quagmires for the past hours. They had no idea what time it was, but they had been out long enough to feel like it was time to go home. Besides, they started to get hungry, because it was several hours since they ate their sandwhiches.

"I need to s-stop at the pharmacy." Violet said suddenly. "You can go without me."  
"What?" Klaus answered.  
"I need to buy so-some things... you can tell O-O-Olaf that I'll be home in about 20 mi-minutes or so."  
"What do you need to buy?"  
"Just some _th-things_ , Klaus!"  
"Are you sure that I shouldn't wait for you? It's safer to go home together."  
Violet sighed. "You're right. But you need to wait o-o-outside while i'm buying the things."  
"Alright." Klaus chuckled.

Violet awkwardly walked into the pharmacy. She checked her pocket - yes, her wallet was still there. She had not dropped it. It was just to go inside, buy the things and go out. No big deal. Where was the aisle with...  
"Violet Baudelaire?" a voice called behind her. Violet turned around and saw a red-haired girl with her hair put up with a large pink bowtie staring at her. There was only one person who would wear pink clothes from head to toe.  
"Carmelita Spats." Violet said with a kind of despising tone.  
"Why are you in a pharmacy?"  
Violet rolled her eyes. "What are you do-doing here yourself?"  
"I am here with my mother!" Carmelita yelled, "I atleast have a reason for being here!"

Violet just ignored her, trying to just go buy her things. But Carmelita followed her, which made Violet feel uncomfortable.  
"What are you buying?" Carmelita asked with a teasing face.  
"N-None of your business."  
"Come on, tell me!"  
"No, p-p-please leave me alone."

Carmelita was a girl that had a history of sneaking into peoples private lives. She was always in the schoolyard whispering into peoples ears about other students. She didn't spread _rumors,_ more like "things she saw" (that is atleast how she put it). She was always everywhere and nowhere and somehow knew every child in town. She wasn't interested in the children younger than herself though. Therefore, anyone from 12 to about 15 had to watch out, because she would be there. Day to day you could hear her whispers.  
"I saw Daniel Handler play an accordeon to crows. He must be in a cult."  
"Charlie Bucket isn't poor at all. I saw him go inside a big factory like he lived there."  
No matter how many times she had been told to stop she just continued. Several times other children had tried to talk about what they saw Carmelita do, as a revenge. That did not work out at all, because Carmelita claimed to not hide anything. The worst part was, even though everyone knew that her behaviour wasn't okay, some still tended to want to hear about the "things she saw" about these people. It was like an evil circle that did not break.

"Carmelita, honey." Carmelitas mother called.  
"Coming, mom!" Carmelita replied. Then she looked at Violet. "You can't hide anything from me."  
Violet just shook her head and went to the other side of the store. When she thought Carmelita had gone, she went back to the things she had to buy.

Sanitary products.

Violet sighed. Why was it so hard? This was something she needed, something completely normal, like buying apples. Yet, this was something kind of embarrasing too.  
It was just to grab the first best and then go and pay. But which one?  
Which one did she need the most?  
Which one gave her most protection?

Violet closed her eyes and grabbed the first one she got her hands on. She opened them again.  
_Lolita medium pads  
_Alright. She would take take that one. Perfect. Let's go and pay.

"That took longer than expected." Klaus said when Violet came out.  
"Yeah, i... ran into Carmelita." Violet answered awkwardly.  
"I thought I saw her." Klaus chuckled. Then the siblings walked home in silence.

When they walked inside the apartment, Olaf sat in the living room watching TV.  
"Hi. There's a pizza in the kitchen." he said, barely looking at them. He was busy watching some weird show that Klaus could swear was a kids show, but he wasn't sure.  
"I'm coming soon" Violet said to Klaus, "I just need to u-use the bathroom."  
Klaus nodded and Violet proceeded to walk to the bathroom who was straight across the hall.   
"What did you buy?" Olaf suddenly said. He had gone from being into his viewing on TV to look directly at the plastic bag Violet held in her right hand.  
"J-Just some th-things." Violet replied nervously. She started to walk again, because she did not want to talk to Olaf right now. She found herself going faster and faster.

Violet was in the bathroom for a good five minutes. All she could of now was the pizza that waited for her. Before she got out, she could swear she heard a small whisper, but figured that it could have been a neighbour apartment making some noise. She unlocked the door and went out.

Right in the middle of eating pizza, Violet suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Behind her stood Olaf.  
"Did you have fun today with the Quagmires?" he asked.  
"Yes. And tomorrow we will swim with them in the lake!" Klaus replied happily.  
"Oh, really?" Olaf glanced at Violet, "Well then..."  
"I did not get what kind of rumors people tell about them" Klaus continued, "They are awesome!"  
"Well..." Olaf coughed. He looked like he wanted to say something, but did not find the right words. Instead, he just frowned and walked away.  
"The ruh-rumors are probably from all those a-a-angry neighbors of the Quagmire's different gu-guardians." Violet whispered.  
"That makes sense..." Klaus answered.

　

Later that evening, Violet was brushing her teeth in the bathroom. She saw herself in the mirror and for the first time, she did not see herself as a little girl. In the mirror, she saw a young woman. An adolescent. Teenage girl. She was not used as seeing herself like this. Did other people notice? Did _adults_ notice? Maybe this is why she felt anxious around Olaf. He had become more and more "worried" about her these latest months. She thought it might've been because of Sunny's disapearence, but he didn't seem to treat Klaus like her. Maybe he was worried because she started to look more like a _woman.  
_" _Help me.._ " a voice suddenly echoed.  
"What?" Violet whispered.   
" _Help me. Please."_ the voice echoed again. It was kind of a low echo, but Violet could still hear it. " _I am trapped in the sink."  
_Violet could feel herself getting goosebumps. This voice sounded very real, but how could someone be trapped in the sink?   
Still, she was curious and decided to give it a try. "Hello? Is someone there?"  
" _Janis Herron_."  
Violet looked shocked. Janis Herron was a child that, like Sunny, had gone missing during the past months. She was a little older though, maybe even older than Violet. _Maybe more of a teenager than a child.  
_" _Trixie Troubleby._ "  
That was another one of the missing kids.  
" _We are all down here, Violet. Janis, Trixie, Gage, León... even someone you know dearly."  
_The last part had a very dark voice saying it, which made Violet shutter.  
" _We got your little sister Sunny down here with us."_ There was a babylike laughter. " _She wants us to tell you that she misses you very much, but your will be together again once you float down here with us._ "  
Violet looked really confused, but also quite terrified. Was this some kind of joke? Suddenly, she heard a boiling sound from the sink. She bent down to investigate, wondering if she could see it. That is when she saw the horror.

Blood streamed out of the sink right in her face. It hit stained the bathroom mirror, the walls, the carpet on the floor... Violet backed away in panic. She sank down on the floor while watching the blood fountain continue. She cried and screamed in silence until the bloodstream finally stopped. This is when Olaf busted into the door.  
"What the hell's going on?"

Violet looked at her foster dad in fright. Shaking and unavailable to speak, she tried to point at the sink. Olaf went over there and looked down.  
"There is nothing in the sink, Violet."  
"Bu-Bu-Bu-But can't y-you..." she shivered, "t-t-theres is b-b-b-b-blood. E-E-Everywhere."  
"What blood?" Olaf kind of muttered.   
"D-D-Don't you s-s-see it?"  
"Violet..." Olaf bent down and looked at her, "You worry me. You worry me a lot."   
Violet just looked at him in horror.  
"We really need to get you help to fix that stutter." he said and stood up. "Now, don't lie there all day. I suggest you take a shower or something."   
He then went out and closed the door.

Violet kept sobbing. She noticed that her hair and probably her whole face had been covered in blood. How could Olaf not have seen it? She glanced at the shower. That part actually seemed spotless from any blood.  
Violet slowly walked up and bit her lip. She had to take a shower, because she did not want to walk around with blood in her hair. But she never knew if she wanted to set her foot in the bathroom after that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my! I kept adding more and more to this chapter that I wanted to include. There were even some other things that I wrote before that I deleted now.   
> With the missing kids, I just wrote some random names. Some names, like Trixie Troubleby and Gage, you may have heard before. Janis Herron was just a mashup of two characters names smashed into one… and then León, which actually was a characters name in the Disney Channel telenovela "Violetta" (if you missed Violetta then you missed something massive! You have no idea how popular that show was in Latin America and Europe),  
> I got nothing else to say, really. This took a little longer to publish because of school starting again, me just being tired and lazy, all that fun stuff. But I do enjoy making this fanfic! Next part will probably be a little happier!


	6. Happy swimming day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang swims and have a fun time.

Chapter 6: Happy swimming day

  
The Quagmires stood in their underwear above the lake. They had swimwear, they just didn't have the patience to find them.   
"It's higher than I remember" Duncan said nervously.  
"Well, it's not like the water is gone." Isadora replied while chuckling. "Now, when did the Baudelaires say they were getting here?"  
"We're here!" yelled a voice from behind them. It was Klaus, looking at them with squinting eyes, because he did not wear his glasses.   
"Hello." Violet said, standing behind Klaus. They both looked like they had seen something terrifying, but forced a smile to act like nothing.  
"Has something happened?" Quigley asked.  
"It's... nothing." Violet answered, "Let's just swim now. And have fun."

"Alright!" Isadora exclaimed, "Who's first to jump?"  
They all looked down to the lakes glowing water.   
"Can't we just jump together?" Duncan asked nervously.  
"Why not?" Quigley chuckled. "We'll hold hand and jump."  
"On five!" Isadora giggled and reached out for hands. "One for each one of us."

All five held hands and stepped forward.  
"One." said Violet.  
"Two." yelled Isadora.  
"Three." chuckled Quigley.  
"Four." whispered Duncan.  
"Five!" screamed Klaus.  
Everyone jumped on that command. They let loose of their hands in the air to not cause any damage (Duncan had read that people had lost their entire arms when they jumped holding hands). After 5 seconds, everyone had landed in the water and their pleasing screams could be heard in miles.

The gang didn't really do much in the lake. They mostly swam around, laughed and dived under the water. Isadora had a tendency to swim deep down, only to swim up again to scare people. It ended with her almost crashing into Violets legs and that's when she decided it was enough scaring for today.   
"Hey, how deep is this lake?" Quigley asked.  
"I'm not sure" Klaus answered, "It depends."  
"It's deep enough for me to swim down and pop up again without anyone noticing!" Isadora giggled.

After swimming around for about half an hour, the gang started to get tired and got up on the nearest rock that lied not far from their clothes.  
"Oh, you also hid your clothes in the bushes on the left side?" Duncan asked.  
"Of course." Violet replied, "It's the best hiding place! N-Not that anyone would tuh-tuh-take our clothes to begin with, but you n-never know."  
She started to lie down on the rock and sunbathe. "It _is_ a nice weather today!"  
"Yeah..." Isadora mumbled, although she wasn't reflecting on the weather.  
"You wanna sunbathe too, Isadora?" Quigley whispered with a teasing smile.  
"Huh?"  
"You seem to think about sunbathing." Quigley continued whispering.  
"What?" Isadora replied with a confused face, "Why would I think about- How do _you_ know what i'm thinking of?"  
"Oh, I know excactly what you're thinking. Don't hide it."  
"Wait, what is Isadora thinking of?" Duncan suddenly asked. "Can you read minds, Quigley?"  
"No" Quigley smirked, "but some things I just see and notice."  
"Ok! So what do you notice about me?" Duncan asked, rather teasingly. Isadora looked at Duncan with a pleasing face, like a kind of _thank you_ for him to ask that question.  
"I notice that you..." Quigley began and started to think. "You... you are freezing."  
"Well, I am a little cold." Duncan shrugged, "But I don't know if i'm freezing."  
"Come and sunbathe with me!" Violet yelled, looking up. "The sun is re-really warming up this spot!"

Duncan walked over to where Violet lied.  
"Wow, you are right. It _is_ warmer here."  
"I told you" Violet smirked. Duncan sat down on the rock and looked pleasingly up into the sun.  
"Isadora, come lie next to me!" Violet said happily.   
"Why?" Isadora asked. She did not ask "why" because she didn't want to be with Violet, but because she wondered why Violet suddenly wanted her to lie down next to her.  
"Because I want to!" Violet giggled. Isadora chuckled quietly and went nervously over to Violet. She then proceeded to lie down. Violet smiled and she smiled back.  
"This weather makes me f-feel more confident!" Violet giggled.  
"Yeah..." Isadora answered. She did not feel that way, since she suddenly felt less confident than normal, but she did not say anything more.

After a while of quietly lying in the sun, Quigley stood up.  
"Hey, Klaus and Violet?" he asked.  
"Yes?" Klaus and Violet replied in unison.  
"Before we jumped from the cliff, you really looked frightened. You said it was nothing, but... was it really nothing?"  
Klaus sighed. "Violet, can I tell them?"  
Violet nodded silently.  
"This morning, I found our whole bathroom covered in blood."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this is a little shorter chapter. I wanted to have some chapters that just were happy and friendly. I noticed while I was reading IT that sometimes, you forget that there is a murderous clown around in town, because they focus on the kids bonding, and I really like that.  
> So yeah, next chapter will probably be some blood cleaning montage. And maybe it's time for someone of the Quagmires to get scared soon?


	7. Blood cleaning montage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang clean up the blood in the bathroom. Then the Quagmires encounter Carmelita on their way home...

Chapter 7: Blood cleaning montage

　

The gang was on their way to the Baudelaires apartment, still wet from swimming in the lake.   
"If this is a prank..." Duncan began.  
"It's not a prank!" Klaus interrupted, looking very seriously. "Violet, should I tell them?"  
"Go ahead." Violet sighed.

"Ok." Klaus started to tell what happened.  
"This morning, while eating breakfast, I asked Violet if she needed to use the bathroom before me. She looked very frightened and said no. Suspicious, I thought." He looked at Violet and nodded. "Anyway, so I went in and... the whole bathroom was covered in red. Ok, not all of it, but the whole sink, the mirror and the carpet on the floor was full of red. There were even some stains on the ceiling. So, I asked Olaf if he knew what was wrong, but he apparently could not see the blood at all..." Klaus started to look down. "Then I asked Violet."   
There was a silence for about 15 seconds before Klaus continued.  
"She said... that she had seen it too. But Olaf couldn't... I thought it was a prank at first, but she was dead serious... Violet? Maybe you should tell about what happened to you the night before?"

Violet shivered and nodded. Then she began telling how the night before, she heard voices in the sink. She told them how there was blood, how scared she was. She stuttered a lot when she came to the part where Olaf couldn't see the blood. Everyone could see that she almost started to cry.  
"I m-must be crazy" she shivered.  
"In that case i'm crazy too" Klaus said. Then he sighed and started to tell about his experience in the library.

The Quagmires just listened and got a little confused, because it all seemed rather unrealistic. But the Baudelaires looked too serious about telling this, and they could not just be acting.  
"That's why I looked so frightened yesterday." Klaus said, when he finished his story.  
"Oh, Klaus, you sho-should have t-told me sooner!" Violet replied.  
"How could I? It was to unreal to be true!" Klaus shivered.  
Before the Quagmires could say anything about this, they had arrived at the apartment.  
"Olaf is not home, is he?" Klaus asked.  
"N-No!" Violet replied, shaking. "He wo-would kill us if he f-f-finds out we b-brought you guys here."  
"What does he have against us?" Isadora asked.  
"We don't know." Klaus sighed, "He just said that you guys have 'rumors' about yourselves or something."  
The Quagmires looked at each other rather concerned, but stayed silent.

The gang walked slowly inside the apartment. Violet was shaking. Isadora tried to grab her hand for comfort, but she did not know if Violet wanted that, so she just stood beside her.  
Klaus slowly opened the door to the bathroom.  
"Do you see it?"  
"If you mean that it looks like a murder has been comitted here, then yes." Isadora said in shock.  
"Why haven't you cleaned it yet?" Duncan asked strictly.  
"We don't know" Klaus and Violet said in unison.  
"Well, it's the the time to clean now!" Duncan exclaimed and started to quickly turn around. "Where are your cleaning things?"

They cleaned for about an hour. Quigley took the mirror and objects, Klaus took the floor and Violet and Isadora took the walls. Duncan made sure to clean all the stains from the carpet, which was something he learned by a maid about a year ago when he accidentally puked on a carpet.

"As good as new!" Quigley exclaimed when they cleaned up the last stain.  
"It's so strange..." Isadora said, "How could all of us see this, but not Olaf?"  
"Maybe only children see it." Duncan said. "Although we haven't seen anything."  
"Well, there are only children that has gone missing." Klaus added.  
"But how come you and Violet has seen things and not us?" Quigley asked.  
"Maybe we will." Isadora snickered, but noticed that no one found it funny.  
"Anyway, we should be heading home before Olaf comes." Quigley said nervously.  
"Th-Thanks for your help." Violet replied.   
"Anytime, Baudelaires." Duncan smiled.

On their way home, Isadora started to think about what the Baudelaires said about Olaf.  
"What do you think Olaf had meant when he told them that we had 'rumors' about ourselves?" she asked.  
"Well, we are orphans and have moved arund town to different foster parents multiple times." Duncan answered. "I guess that is rumors... or something."  
"I hope it's just that..." Isadora said and looked down.

"Well, well, well..." a high-pitched voice called from behind them. When the triplets turned around, they saw a red haired girl staring at them.  
"Carmelita." they said in unison.  
"Are you on your way home?" Carmelita asked.  
"Yes." Duncan replied and was preparing to go away.  
"I heard you talking about rumors." Carmelita giggled.   
"It was nothing." Quigley muttered.  
"Oh, you know I don't tell rumors." Carmelita said, "I just tell people what I saw."  
"We weren't asking you for rumors!" Isadora shouted, only to realise how loud her voice was and looked away to hide her embarrasment.  
"I did once hear some people else tell things about you though." Carmelita said like she hadn't heard Isadora at all.  
"What did they say?" Isadora asked, suddenly interested.  
"Isadora, no." Quigley whispered.

"Well then." Carmelita started to walk around. She pointed at Duncan.  
"Duncan Quagmire. He is definetly a hypochondriac."  
Duncan looked at her in disgust. "Do you even know what that means?"  
"I did not say this, Duncan. Someone else did."  
"You are not a hypochondriac, Duncan." Quigley whispered, "You just want to keep clean and healthy. That is different."  
"Isadora Quagmire." Carmelita continued, "Have you seen her poems? They have a really subliminal messages in it. Do not let your daughters play with her, or god knows what happens."  
"What?" Isadora yelled. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
"I have read every poem Isadora has written." Quigley stated, "She has never written any subliminal messages in any poems!"  
"Tell that to the mother that said that." Carmelita snickered.  
"Whose mother was that?" Isadora asked angrily.  
"That is anonymous." Carmelita said, which made the triplets roll their eyes.  
"Alright, what did they say about me?" Quigley muttered.  
"Quigley Quagmire." Carmelita said teasingly, "He has to live with the fact that it's _his_ fault that his parents died."

This is when all three of the triplets snapped. Quigley stood back in shock, while Duncan started to shout "Who the hell told you that?" and Isadora ran up to Carmelita, ready to kill her.   
"No one told me that. _That_ , I came up with myself."  
"I am going to make sure that you'll go missing too, you little bitch!" Isadora screamed.  
"What? Everyone in town knows how your parents died. Everyone knows that the ran back inside to pick up Quigley."  
"You are full of shit!" Duncan shouted.   
"Oh please, like you haven't already gotten over it in therapy." Carmelita rolled her eyes. That is when Isadora smacked her in the head, making her trip. Then she stepped on her stomach. Carmelita started to cry. Isadora cried too, as well as her brothers.

"You are a psycho!" Carmelita cried.  
"You..." Isadora panted. She was very upset and could not come up with the words.  
"That was really low, Carmelita." Quigley said with a quiet voice. "Let her be, Isadora. It's no use anyway."

The triplets walked away slowly, leaving Carmelita behind. Carmelita stood up slowly.  
"Thanks to you I will have stomach aches!" she screamed.  
"Oh, poor you!" Isadora yelled back.  
"Ignore her, Isa." Duncan said.  
"No wonder people call you a dyke!" Carmelita screamed, which almost made Isadora go back and beat her up even more. But she bit her lip and continued walking.

They walked into their home, just in time for dinner. None of them wanted to eat, because they all was pretty upset.  
"Are you alright?" asked Miss Caliban, who was their guardian Nero's secretary. She was around often more than Nero.  
"We had a fight with Carmelita Spats." Isadora said sharply.  
"I see..." Miss Caliban said, knowing fully well who Carmelita was. "Do you want me to get you an appointment with your psychologist? I feel like this is more than a fight."  
The triplets nodded.  
"Did you atleast have fun with the Baudelaires?" Miss Caliban asked, and the triplets nodded again. "You can eat in your rooms, you can each grab a plate and eat in there whenever you want."

And so, Duncan, Quigley and Isadora grabbed a plate of food and went into their seperate rooms. The rest of the day would be a little more peace and quiet, they hoped.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a little longer to finish, because it's been a busy week. Where I live, there is a tradition to celebrate the last day of april because "spring is here for real" even though summer technically soon arrives. Because of that, we are off school that day, so me and my friend hung out all day and watched TV! (Note: I live in Sweden and this tradition is called "valborg".)  
> Anyway, I kind of went overboard with the Carmelita scene. It was like old anger that I myself had in me that came out when I wrote Isadora punching and hurting Carmelita.   
> Next chapter, we will maybe have some more scare scenes! I originally thought of every one of the Quagmires to have one scare scene each in their rooms, but I also have some other ideas for them. Anyway, one of them will have a little freaky scene in their room for the next chapter at least. Hope you have enjoyed it this far!


	8. The poster of isis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isadora discovers that not even innocent posters can be trusted on.

Chapter 8: The poster of isis

　

Isadora closed the door to her room. She put her plate of chicken and rice on her writing desk, who already was full of paper and notebooks, and even some drawings. She wasn't hungry right now.

How she hated Carmelita Spats. Hated, hated, hated. How could someone be so cold-hearted, mean, spoiled and just plain awful all at the same time?   
_Well, maybe it was a little much to push her...  
_She deserved to be slapped!  
_Isadora, maybe you should control your anger more...  
_Carmelita is a horrible girl!  
_Remember what your psycologist said..._

Maybe it was not the right thing to straight up abuse Carmelita on the street. But Isadora needed to shut that girl up somehow. Maybe now, Carmelita would leave her and her brothers alone. Or Carmelita would tell everyone that Isadora is a psycho that hurts people... _or she could do both._

Isadora looked at her poster on the wall. It was of a blonde girl with a ponytail tied up in a large pink bowtie. She was wearing a school uniform or something, although it could've also been a normal daily oufit. Isadora wasn't sure where she got the poster or who the girl was. But she did feel a kind of comfort with it. It gave her hope, no matter how weird it was. The girl on the poster, with her confident eyes and bright smile, like she was saying that _nothing would hurt her._

Isadora exhaled and closed her eyes. One of her favourite things in the world was to daydream, because if it was made right, it could be as strange and exiting as a real dream.

Isadora thought how it would be if she met the poster girl in real life. She would be the same age as her, so they could be friends. She would have the best laugh in the world and would never get tired of Isadora speaking. They would be best friends and together they would share secrets that not even her brothers knew about.  
_Well, there is still some secrets you hide in real life from them, isn't it, Isadora?  
_They would be like Anne Shirley and Diana Barry. Kindred spirits and bosom friends. Never leave each others side. Isadora started to feel a warm feeling sliding through her as she imagined her friendship with someone who did not exist.

She opened her eyes and decided to write a poem. What kind of poem she did not know yet but she really wanted to. She glanced at her poster one more time. The poster glanced back. And blinked. Isadora froze.  
_Posters can't blink? Did I see it right? I must be tired from daydreaming._  
Isadora shrugged it off and turned around to her desk. She felt a cold feeling behind her.   
"Are you going to write about me?" a very high-pitched voice whispered. Isadora shuttered.  
"Turn around, silly." the voice said, still whispering. Isadora slowly turned around and saw the poster girl, moving her hand out of the poster.

I must be dreaming. I fell asleep and now i'm dreaming for real. Why can't I wake up? Hello?! Isadora! Wake up!

The poster girl started to crawl out from the picture and into Isadora's room. Isadora tried desperately to wake up.  
"You look so frightened." the girl giggled and reach out her hand. She touched Isadora lightly, which made Isadora shiver.  
"Wake up..." Isadora whispered to herself.

Suddenly, the girl dragged Isadora onto her bed. Then she laid next to her and started to hug her tightly.  
"What's the matter?" the girl said in a little more sinister voice, "I thought you wanted this."  
"I...I-I-I..." Isadora could not continue her sentence. This was too surreal. If this was a dream, then _why did it feel so real?_  
"Stuttering, are we?" the poster girl giggled and started to move closer to Isadora, hugging her tighter.  
"C-C-C-Can't..." Isadora exhaled.  
"Sch..." the girl started to whisper into Isadora's ear.  
"Come with me and we can fly, you and me. We can float down there. _You will be free down there._ We can be the bestest of friends. Best friends who shares secrets and jokes and shares popcorn and hugs and _kisses on the mouth!_ "

Isadora panted really loudly, trying to escape, as the girl almost licked her on the arm.  
"Don't you like it, Isa?" she asked and Isadora noticed how the girl started to look more old. Her skin became colder and more _rotten._ Her teeth got more yellow and her eyes darker.   
"Don't you like poems?" the girl asked in the deepest voice Isadora could imagine.  
"I got a poem for you, my dear Isadora:  
_She is someone that I like_  
She is stronger than a spike  
And we don't even need a psych  
To tell that Isadora is a-"

That's when Isadora managed do let go of the grip and stumbled onto the floor. She quickly stood up again. The girl started to look more and more like an old woman.  
"Come on, Issy."   
_I hate when people call me Issy.  
_"I thought you _liked_ this." the girl giggled in a rusty voice, like she had smoked. "I though you _wanted_ to cuddle up with me. _Hug me tightly and make out and..."_  
"Shut up!" Isadora cried, shaking. "I-I want to wake up from this dream!  
"If this is a dream" the girl chuckled, "Why does it feel so real?"

Isadora stood paralyzed. How could the poster girl read her thoughts? Was this even a dream or was it actually a reality?  
_Can people in real life read your thoughts? Do people know your biggest secrets?  
_"No..." Isadora shivered and tears were coming out of her eyes. She hadn't noticed that she touched the poster on the wall, that still hanged there. The poster girl started to flick. Isadora gasped.

Then she dragged down the poster with one hand and saw how the girl became more... like a light. Like she was... melting.  
"Don't run away from yourself!" the girl coughed violently. She then crawled onto the floor and grabbed Isadora's legs. Her bowtie was all messy and her skirt looked to almost fall off. Isadora started to grab onto the wall. The girl reached for the poster that now lied on the floor.   
"Why don't you stay in the poster with me? Safe and sound!"

Isadora backed away and reached for the doorknob.  
"I would rather die!" she said, shaking and crying. She then started to drag down the doorknob to open it. The poster girl let out a scream and Isadora rushed out of the room and closed the door as fastly as she could.

Isadora stood in front of the door over 5 minutes and panted. That is when Nero, her foster dad, came out of his room with his violin in his hand.  
"What are you making noise about?" he muttered. Isadora just looked at him with a shocked face.  
"What's in your room?" Nero sighed and opened the door without Isadora even reacting to answer. She closed her eyes.

"Isadora." Nero poked at her. "There is nothing in your room."  
"What?"  
"And that poster you have" Nero continued, "are you sure you want it?"  
He held up the poster that was the reason Isadora left her room in the first place. This time, it was not a poster of a quirky happy girl that Isadora admired. It was a sad and angry girl with creepy eyes, as if to say _I will kill you tonight._  
"No. Throw it away. Please." Isadora shuttered.  
"Throw it away yourself." Nero groaned and gave her the poster, "I won't throw away something that is your property." Then he walked away.

Isadora looked at the poster and felt a cold feeling running through her. She walked fast onto the nearest trash can. She digged through and placed the poster at the bottom.  
She was beginning to think that Violet and Klaus wasn't so hysterical after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I was away this weekend and then I had to study a lot in school, plus I have a theatre performance coming up (we are doing a play in swedish written by some random guy, and the play is really, really weird. It got everything from teachers smoking weed to students calling for Satan in the woods. I don't think they have translated it to any language, so it only exists in swedish.)  
> Also, I had some trouble writing this chapter. I wanted to write it as good as possible and, yes, the chapter title is a really bad pun I know. I had all these random paragraphs before that did not lead anywhere, so I had to delete it. Anyway, I hope you still enjoyed this chapter. Next one is either going to be about Quigley's scaring scene or something with everyone in the unfortunate losers. We'll see.


	9. Duncan and the hypochondriac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duncan gets a phone call from his old guardian. What will happen when he visits her?

Chapter 9: Duncan and the hypochondriac

　

The day after Isadora had a very absurd interaction with a poster, Duncan woke up with a knock on his door.  
"It's me!" said Miss Caliban.  
"Come in!" Duncan replied and glanced at the door opening.  
"You have a phone call."

Duncan went out to the living room where the house phone was and answered.  
"Hello?"  
"Hi! Is it you, Duncie?"  
Duncan shivered. The only one who ever called him "Duncie" was one woman that he lived with for a while when he was around seven.  
"Miss Kasbrak?"  
"Yes!" Miss Kasbrak talked in a kind of childish voice, like Duncan still was a little child. "I know it's been a while, but... I found something that I think belonged to you and I was wondering if you would want to come to my house and retrive it."  
"What was it?" Duncan asked.  
"You'll see when you get here." Miss Kasbrak giggled. "Why don't you come over right now? I still live on the same street, do you remember? You take bus five to get there."  
"Miss Kasbrak..." Duncan sighed, "I haven't heard from you in years and now you are calling me to retrive something that may be mine?"  
"Woke up in the wrong side of bed, did we?"  
"Miss Kasbrak, I am not a little child, you don't have to talk to me like that."  
"It's not your fault for talking to me like that! Your siblings were always little troublemakers and now they made you that way too!"  
"Please, listen..."  
"No! Duncan, I insist you come here! For one last time! Please?"

Duncan exhaled deeply. He thought he had gotten over the scars this woman had set on him. Apparently, they were still there.  
"Just listen to this..." he said slowly, "I don't know if i'm allowed to come visit you."   
He wanted to say _"The social workers took us away from you for a reason"_ but he thought he had said enough "negative" things to her already.  
"Nonsense!" Miss Kaspbrak yelled, "Let me speak to your guardian!"  
Duncan called for Nero who was in the kitchen and told him to take the phone. When Nero took it, Duncan let out a deep breath. There was no chance Nero would let him go there after hearing the crazy woman on the phone speaking to him.

But after five minutes, Nero placed his hand on his shoulder.  
"That Kasbrak lady was a real pain." he muttered. Duncan nodded. "But honestly, it wouldn't be so bad for you to visit her."  
"What?" Duncan yelled.  
"Yes, then she maybe will leave everyone alone!" Nero shrieked.  
"But..."  
"No buts, boy! I'll pay for your bus ticket! Just visit her and retrive whatever belonged to you!"  
Duncan sighed and said "alright". But he was very unsure of this.

Excactly 10 am, Duncan stepped onto bus five with a very nervous face. He sat in the middle of the bus and looked outside the window. He did not have a good feeling about this. But at the same time as he had a grudge against miss Kasbrak, she was someone that took care of him for a year. She gave him clothes, food and made sure he was safe and healthy. _Almost made sure that he was safe and healthy a little too much_.

Memories started to fly by as he saw all these houses he hadn't seen for a long time. Even though he was younger than he was when he lived with Esme Squalor, he somehow remembered more from his time with miss Kasbrak. It was like his three years with Esme was a big blurr, since nothing really happened and the same behaviour was repeated, but his one year with miss Kasbrak was a big timeline.

The first weeks of living with miss Kasbrak, she had said all this weird things to the triplets. Duncan could almost hear her voice.  
_Now, you are finally safe, my dear children. You are very sick, which is very normal for someone like you. Poor dears. Don't worry, I will start to give you medicines.  
_Duncan chuckled for himself, since he rarely reflected on how _absurd_ it had been. Miss Kasbrak had done everything from not letting them go outside to play to almost making them wear pull-ups to bed. Duncan just stared blankly into place, because he realised that yes, that woman once tried to make him and his siblings wear pull-ups to bed. _Children in your situation are more likely to have accidents,_ or something like that. Luckily, the triplets protested so much to that idea that miss Kasbrak just gave up on it.   
"Oh gosh..." Duncan whispered to himself. He realised that he had to prepare for this meeting. He knew how much miss Kasbrak had influenced him. Even if he never really believed any of the things she said, he was more shy than his siblings, which made him an easier target for miss Kasbrak to brainwash.

The bus stopped and Duncan went off. He looked around at all the houses in the nearby area. Yup, nothing had changed. He almost felt a little nostalgia walking by them, but at the same time a kind of unnerving feeling. Like he was going to live a nightmare again, but this time he can fight it. Or something. It was hard to explain.  
"Hi!" called a man who was doing laundry in his front yard. Duncan looked up.  
"Hi?" he replied. He recogonized this man from somewhere.  
"You have to excuse if i'm wrong now" the man said, "But do you have a brother and a sister?"  
"Yes."  
"Is your name Duncan or Quigley?"  
"My name is Duncan, yes." Duncan answered, realising that this man probably was an old neighbor.

The man ran up to his gate, looking at Duncan closely.  
"My, you have gotten big."   
"Yeah?"  
"You may not remember me." the man chuckled, "My name is Charles."  
"Charles." Duncan gasped, "Were you the man that used to say hello every time we walked to school?"  
"Yes." Charles smiled. "Me and Sir, we tried to invite you over sometimes, but miss Kasbrak... you know how stubborn she was."  
"Right, Sir was the man you were sharing your house with?" Duncan asked.  
"You could say that" Charles chuckled, "You and your siblings are more than welcome to come over sometime."  
"Thank you." Duncan said politely. Then he waved while continuing to walk.

On his way, he thought of his memories of Charles and Sir (his real name wasn't Sir, but he wanted everyone to call him that). There were blurry, but he clearly remembered him and his siblings asking miss Kasbrak why she always declined their offer to invite everyone over. She had sighed and told them to sit down.  
"Charles and Sir..." miss Kasbrak started, talking like a daycare teacher. "Charles and Sir have a different way of living. You know how they live together in a house?"  
"Yes?" the triplets had said in unision.  
"Well, they live together like a man and woman."  
"Yes?" the triplets said again.  
"They live together like a mommy and daddy." miss Kasbrak sighed, a little shocked over the triplets neutral reaction.  
"Aww! Are they going to have a baby?" asked Quigley.  
"They can't." Isadora said.  
"Excacty, Isadora!" miss Kasbrak exclaimed. This was one of the few moments when she actually felt proud of Isadora.  
"Because they can't get pregnant. But they can adopt if they want to." Isadora added.  
Miss Kasbraks proudness disappeared.  
"They would be excellent parents!" Duncan added.  
"No!" miss Kasbraks exhaled, "A normal family has a mother and a father. Not two fathers."  
"Why not?" asked Duncan.  
"Because it's unnatural!" miss Kasbrak almost screamed.

Now, Duncan didn't remember much more than that. He was seven and could not really argue. Two men or two women was "unnatural" they were told at an early age.   
_That could explain why Isadora was acting out so much wait what why did I just think that do I think my sister is no she cannot be or could she in that case she would've told me ok stop thinking about this Duncan_

Duncan stood in front of the house he swore he would never see again. About to meet the woman who left some mental scars on him. She did it to protect him but she kind of brainwashed him and he knew that. He sighed and went up to the door. Let's just get this overwith.  
"Duncie!" miss Kasbrak shrieked when she opened the door. "Come in! But wipe your shoes of. And take them off."  
"Hello, miss Kasbrak." Duncan said rather monotone and did as she told him.  
"I'll take your jacket, sweetie." miss Kasbrak said lovingly and took off his jacket. She hadn't changed a day. Still the same old clothes and the same old overprotective smile.

They sat down in her kitchen. Miss Kasbrak offered Duncan to eat all the cookies and drink all the lemonade she had placed there. Duncan just smiled and nodded, not actually wanting to be there.  
"Now, my little Dunclet" she smiled, "Tell me how you've been. Oh, i've missed you so much!"  
"I have been fine." Duncan replied, trying to sound pleasant. "Thank you. How have you been?"  
"Terribly lonely!" miss Kasbrak cried, "Those idiots for social workers that took you away! I could never feel happy again. But I did move on. That is until I found this."  
She walked away to the living room and came back with a little box. In there was a small wolf made of cotton, with button eyes.  
"Remember this?" she said oddly nervously.  
"I think so?" Duncan answered, looking a little confused.  
"When I saw it I got so many memories! I remember how you would play with this wolf around the house. But you almost hurt yourself sometimes!"  
"How?" Duncan asked, since he really had no memory of almost hurting himself while in her house.  
"You walked behind the TV once and you know how dangerous that can be. Or how you climbed up the monkey bars on the playground! You could have fallen if I hadn't managed to take you down."  
"Wow..." Duncan lowkey rolled his eyes. "Did I bring the wolf everywhere?"  
"Oh, no." miss Kasbrak chuckled. "No, you just played with it in the house. Hurting yourself was another topic."  
"Okay..."

"So tell me, how are your wild siblings?" asked miss Kasbrak and grinned.  
"They are... fine."  
"Does Isadora still scream when she has to take her medicine?" miss Kasbrak asked in a kind of dark voice. "Or does Quigley still refuse to take pills for pollen allergy because he claims he never had to take it before?"  
"No..." Duncan felt very unnerved by her tone. She just got him a stuffed wolf, changed the subject in a sentence and now changes the subject again. Something was not right.  
"What about you, Duncy-boy?"  
"Huh?"  
"Do you still take _your medicine_?"

Miss Kasbrak's eyes shrunk, which made Duncan shivered. Suddenly, she started to giggle.   
"Miss Kasbrak, are you..."  
"Are you still _a good boy_?"  
She started to look more like a zombie.  
"ARE YOU STILL TAKING YOUR PILLS LIKE A _GOOD BOY_?"

Duncan started to freak out. Is he seeing what Klaus told him that he saw, but with miss Kasbrak? Well, there wasn't any clowns or puppets. Just miss Kasbrak, who was becoming a monster of some sort. He wasn't scared of her starting to look like a zombie (that only grossed him) but rather what she would do to him if she catched him.  
So he started to move fast. First he backed in case she followed him. And she did.  
"Come with me and we will take your medicine!"  
"I don't need any medicine!" Duncan screamed and immidiately regretted it. Miss Kasbrak started to move faster towards him.  
"Yes you do! Don't be naughty!"

Miss Kasbrak managed to touch Duncans shoulder. Her cold hands that started to look more and more crooked made him realise that he needed to get out as fastly as he could. _This was not miss Kasbrak. She was annoying about medicines, yes, but she did not have cold hands or a zombie face. She has been taken over by a power._

Duncan ran. He ran through the living room and accidentally tripped. The miss Kasbrak look-alike was stumbling fastly towards him.  
"I think we need to go to the hospital with you." she giggled, "And then you can eat all the ice cream you want! Hee hee haa haa!"  
"No!" Duncan yelled and crawled his way up on his feet. He managed to get himself to the front door. It was locked (of course it was) and he shakingly tried to unlock it.  
"Don't misbehave or we might the gas that makes you float!"

The door was unlocked. Duncan shot the door up with all his power and noticed how miss Kasbrak tried to get out. He closed it right on her face and heard her screaming. The door was shaking and Duncan held is as hard he could.  
"I will get you!" miss Kasbrak said, "I will come to you when you least expect it! I will be there in your dreams! Everywhere!"

This is when Duncan let go of the door and ran in the highest speed he ever ran. He started to question if it was real. _Or did he accidentally take drugs? That man on the bus with the brown coat looked very strange, maybe he got the drugs the man probably was on by seeing him?  
_Nothing made sense anymore. Maybe everyone in town got these scares. Maybe Sunny wasn't dead.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO...  
> I kind of rushed the ending because I really wanted to post this chapter. I have been busy the last week because of theatre and school and I kind of forgot what I wrote before when I was editing the chapter and adding things.  
> Anyway, next chapter will probably be everyone in this fanfic's losers club together again. I was thinking of doing Quigleys scare scene, but I'll wait because it's time for the Baudelaires for some screen time again. Hope you enjoyed this chapter even if it was messy!


	10. The losers talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Violet meets Isadora and Quigley to catch up.

Chapter 10: The losers talk

　

Violet and Klaus was walking down the street. They had called the Quagmires earlier to hang out. Sure, last time they had cleaned up a bloody bathroom, but they had also had a great day at the lake. Why not try to have a great day again?

"Does Olaf know that we're going out?" Klaus asked.  
"N-N-No!" Violet stuttered. Klaus was going to ask why she always started to stutter really much whenever Olaf was mentioned, but he thought the time was not now.  
"Hey, do you think we will move around at different foster homes like the Quagmires?"   
"I do-do-don't know" Violet replied nervously, "The so-social workers had a huge di-discussion after Sunny w-was... g-g-gone. But as far as I know we w-will co-continue living with O-Olaf."

"There you are, Bauds!" Isadora greeted them. She sat down on a bench with crossed legs.   
"So, what's the deal today?"  
Violet giggled and Klaus just looked confused because he did not know how to respond to that.  
"Duncan is coming later." Quigley explained, "He was going somewhere."  
"Yeah, did he even tell where he went?" Isadora asked.  
"No..." Quigley responded.

Everyone was quiet for a while. Isadora felt the awkwardness and decided to go right into what she thought was wrong.  
"Has it happened anything more strange since the last time we saw each other?"  
"I don't think so." Klaus replied, looking kind of uncomfortable.  
"Atleast we can use the bathroom again." Violet chuckled.  
"Has anything happened to you?" Klaus asked, trying to keep the conversation going.  
"Yes." Quigley and Isadora said at the same time.   
"We met Carmelita the other day." Quigley said.   
"Oh, that's right..." Isadora said. That was not what she had in mind when she said yes.  
"Oh, no." Violet sighed, "What did she do this time?"

Quigley started to tell how Carmelita had bothered them on their way home. He looked at Isadora, who nodded carefully.  
"Then, Carmelita said some really hurtful things." Quigley explained, almost hiding his face.  
"What did she say?" Klaus asked.  
"Things that would make anyone snap." Quigley shivered.  
"This is when I just decided to kill her." Isadora splurted out.  
"What?" Violet almost giggled at the absurdity of that comment.  
"She punched her really hard." Quigley said.  
"I still feel bad about it." Isadora sighed, "I still of course think she deserved it, but my anger is something to work with."  
"Wow." Quigley said, "When Isadora rhymes without meaning, she is really serious."  
"That wasn't a good rhyme." Isadora replied.  
"Still."

"The day became worse after we had come home." Isadora said carefully.  
"Wait, what happened after we came home?" Quigley asked.  
"I am not sure you are going to believe me."  
"Try me."  
"Yeah, Isadora" Violet added, "If me and K-Klaus had unnatural experiences that we can not explain then we buh-buh-believe anything."  
"Okay." Isadora sighed. "Yesterday...oh this sounds so weird... my poster..."  
"Your poster of that smiling girl in a school uniform?" Quigley asked.  
"Yeah, that one. It... it started to... talk to me."  
"What?" Klaus almost chuckled a little.  
"Yeah, it's... gosh, this sounds so stupid." Isadora closed her eyes.  
"Isadora." Violet placed her hand on Isadora's lap. "No matter how stupid it sounds, we will listen."

Isadora took a deep breath and started to descibe about her experience. She told them how the girl had crawled out of the poster and how she held Isadora stuck. Everyone sat there in silence, listening to every single thing she said. Isadora felt more and more how this sounded like a made up story, but she knew it was real. _It felt too real to be a dream_.  
"Now, I know this sounds fake..." Isadora started.  
"Isadora Quagmire." Violet interupted, "F-For the last time. We buh-believe you, even if it's strange!"  
"I know, but still." Isadora sighed. Even if it was Violet, she still felt like she made things up.  
"Isadora, that was even less strange than my encounter with puppet-Sunny." Klaus added.  
"I am wondering if Duncan has experienced anything." Quigley thought, "I haven't seen a thing."

"I have a theory about this." Klaus said after a while of quietness.  
"Spill it." Isadora chuckled.  
"I think this _thing_ that happens to us... it's what caused all the children to go missing."  
"What do you mean?" Quigley asked.  
"I think our experiences are something that scares us, and therefore we all see something different."  
"What are you afraid of, Klaus?" Isadora asked seriously.  
"I think... I am afraid that it's my fault Sunny dissapeard. Because... I didn't do anything..."  
Klaus started to form tears in his eyes.  
"No, Klaus..." Violet tried to comfort him.  
"It doesn't matter, Violet. But I believe that is why I saw Sunny... as a puppet."  
"Well, maybe." Violet said, looking like she was thinking really hard.  
"But what are me and Violet afraid of?" Isadora asked.  
"You tell me." Klaus kind of chuckled.  
"Yeah, I mean bood in the bathroom could be multiple things!" Quigley added. "But the thing that happened you, Isadora, I may have an-"  
"Growing up." Violet blurted out.

"What do you mean, Violet?" Isadora asked.  
"Growing up." Violet repeated. She took a deep breath. "Ever since S-Sunny disappeared, I have felt d-different. Like i'm... starting to grow up... m-more."  
"That's true." Quigley smiled, "You are fourteen years old, after all."  
"Yeah but I huh-have noticed... O-O-Olaf, he... seems to notice me differently."  
"What?" Klaus asked.  
"When we first mo-moved in he was pretty normal. Buh-But it feels like he sees me differently... _because he sees me growing up_."  
"So, if I have gotten this right, which I may not have" Isadora interrupted, "The blood in your bathroom symbolises your period blood because you feel scared of growing up if that means even your own guardian views you differently?"

The silence was long. Everyone stared at Isadora like she was an alien.   
"Yes." Violet said quietly and blushed.  
"Alright." Quigley added awkwardly.   
Klaus just looked away because he did not know what to comment to this at all. Instead he changed the subject.  
"How about you, Isadora?"  
"What?"  
"What are you afraid of?"  
Isadora did not know what to say. She _maybe_ had a slight idea about her fear that caused her poster to... _do that._ But she did not know what to tell them. She noticed Quigley smirking at her.  
"What are you smirking about, brother?" she asked.  
"I think I have an idea." Quigley answered. "But I am not sure that I should tell it."  
"Why not?"  
"Because" Quigley stood up and walked towards her, "Some things are best if you tell yourself."  
"Quigley, what-"  
"Don't be afraid of something you can't help." he whispered. Isadora looked up with large eyes, in a both confusing and realising way. He smiled and nodded. _Maybe he knew._

Suddenly, Duncan came running down the street.  
"Hi!" he panted.   
No one greeted him back.  
"What's up?" he asked, hoping for a response.  
"Duncan" Klaus said, "Have you experienced anything unusual the last hours?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it takes so long to post chapters, but you know how it is.  
> May is the worst month when you're in school. All these tests on the same week just because every grade has to be set before summer vacation.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	11. The fire that never should come back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quigley goes to use the restroom in a store. It wouldn't take that long, would it?

Chapter 11: The fire that never should come back

　

After a lot of convincing, Duncan told the gang what had happened to him at Miss Kasbrak.  
"I always had a feeling you were afraid of her." Isadora said when Duncan was done telling.  
"Yeah." Quigley added, "She kind of brainwashed you, brother."  
"Stop it." Duncan shrieked, but he kind of smiled.  
"Now I just wonder what you might be afraid of, Quigley." Klaus said.  
"Well..." Quigley started to think. "I don't know."  
"I don't think we know buh-before we experience it." Violet said.  
"That seems logical" Klaus shrugged.

After some time, Quigley needed to excuse himself.  
"Is there any restroom around?"  
"I think it's one in the store over the street." Duncan said and pointed to a store called _Penny's food and sweets  
_"Thanks."

Quigley crossed the street and walked into the store. It looked pretty normal, but he swore he never saw this store before. It was a small town, he'd thing he would see it some time?  
No one except a cashier was inside. She looked to be in her 50's and barely glanced at Quigley. He spotted a door next to the soda drinks.  
_Customer's restroom.  
_He carefully walked over, wondering if the cashier would stop him, telling him to buy something before using the restroom. She did not even move. Quigley took it as he could use it without any problem.

After a couple of minutes, Quigley had just finished washing his hands. He was on his way to open the door when he felt the doorknob being really warm. Like, _burning warm_. He could barely touch it without burning his hand.   
_Ow! It must be really hot outside. But it wasn't this hot when I went inside?  
_"Is everything alright?" a voice from outside asked. Quigley figured it must be the cashier, but the voice somehow sounded more familiar. He did not answer, and instead turned the doorknob as fast as he could.

When he was out, he noticed the cashier was gone. Maybe she went to the storage room for refills.   
_Or maybe she was never here at all wait what why did I think that  
_Quigley thought that he should buy something. Just to support the store. Just something cheap and nice, like a small bottle of soda. He went over to the cold drinks.  
_Help...  
_Quigley flinched. He was sure he heard something, like a small voice calling from far away.  
_Help...me..._  
There it was again.

Suddenly, a box of chocolate chip cookies fell down and slided towards Quigley. _Mother always loved chocolate chip cookies._ He thought of putting it back, but he wasn't sure it was his job of doing that. At the same time, the cashier was still nowhere to be seen. Quigley picked the box up and put it back at the shelf.   
"Quigley..."  
"Huh?" Quigley slightly jumped.  
"Help..."

The door to the restroom started to twitch like crazy. Quigley just stood still, pretty paralyzed.   
"Quigley, sweetie!" a voice yelled from inside. He recogonized that voice very well.  
"Who's there?" he asked.  
"Mom!" the voice screamed, "Help! Open the door!"  
For just a second, all the thoughts passed Quigley's head.  
_Mom no it can't be mom because she is dead oh wait what if she's not dead and I've just fooled myself but that would be weird should I open the door or not I don't know anymore_

Quigley didn't have the time to open the door, because the door opened itself. It released a huge black cloud of smoke, which made him cough like crazy. Otherwise, the bathroom was pitch black, with was very strange considering the store was lighted up.  
"Turn the light on." the voice coughed. Quigley had a feeling of everything being wrong, but he still felt like he had to turn the light in the bathroom on. Where was the switch?

The bathroom turned on the lights very slowly. There was still smoke left, but not much. Quigley squinted. That is when he saw the worst nightmare he had ever seen.

Two dead bodies lying on the floor, their faces completely covered in blood and burns. One of them had lost an ear and an eye, and the other had the whole belly cut up. In the middle of this sat a clown, eating of their flesh.  
"Your parents are perfectly grilled." the clown giggled madly. Quigley just stood there paralyzed.  
"You should've come sooner." the clown continued, "Then they would've been less burned by BBQ! Hee hee ha ha!"  
The clown started to stand up and walk towards Quigley, who slowly stepped backwards. The clown opened it's mouth as if it was going to eat Qugley, and Quigley tripped on the soda bottle he held before. He noticed how the smoke started to spread again.  
"Isn't it time for you to burn too?" the clown yelled while laughing like a maniac.  
Quigley stumbled around and managed to get on his feet. He then proceeded to run. Run like his life depended on it. Right into...

"Excuse me, young man."  
Quigley stopped himself. Right in front of him stood the cashier, looking like him as if he was out of his mind. He looked around. No smoke, no clown. Everything was gone.  
"Are you going to buy that coke?" the cashier asked.  
"What?" Quigley noticed the coke bottle he had in his hand. He looked up at the cashier.   
"Yes."

After Quigley bought the coke, he went out from the store. He glanced at it again.  
_Jenny's food and sweets_.  
He could have swore it was Penny's and not Jenny's.

"You were gone for a while." Duncan chuckled when Quigley came back.  
"Yeah..." Quigley answered.  
"Are you going to share your coke?" Isadora asked, handing out her hand to show she wanted to taste. Quigley gave it to her without hesitation.  
"Hey guys..." he said, "I have something to tell you."  
"What is it?" Klaus asked.  
"You know how I said I hadn't experienced anything?"   
"Yeah?" everyone replied in unison.  
"Well, I did experience something. Like, a few minutes ago."  
"You're kidding?" Violet giggled slightly.   
"No." Quigley said with a dead serious face. Then, everyone knew he did not make this up.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know it's a shorter chapter than usual. When you are writing a fanfiction, there is always some chapters that you don't really have the same flow on as the others. Which is why I jumped as quickly as I could into the drama.   
> Anyways, now that everyone of the losers have had their little scare scenes, the plot of hunting down Pennywise, trying to solve the mystery and all that very fun stuff comes! Yay!  
> I at least hope the next chapters will include more action.  
> The next chapter will be posted between 2-6 days, depending on how much effort and inspiration I have. I do not have much school work left, but I am a person who easily gets distracted, so... yeah.


	12. A new mystery begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything starts to look lighter… at least it seems that way.

Chapter 12: A new mystery begins

　

"Even if it's unbelievable" Quigley sighed, "considering we discussed this..."  
"Quigley, for heavens sake!" Violet interrupted, "Do I need to t-tell you the same thing I told Isadora?"  
She placed her hand on Quigleys lap, which he did not know how to feel about, since he was not a person that was used to touching without warning first.  
"It's more of a proof we all experience something." Klaus added.   
"Do you think all the kids in town experience something?" Duncan asked.  
"It would be possible." Klaus said, "It would be weird if it only happened to us five."  
"Do you think Carmelita has experienced anything?" Isadora snorted. Everyone giggled for a bit.  
"Experienced what?"

Everyone went silent and glanced at the red haired girl standing in front of them. Carmelita Spats gave them a very serious look.  
"Hello, Carrie." Isadora said in a flirting voice, like the fight they had the other day was non-existent.  
"Ew, why would you call me that?" Carmelita muttered.  
"What should I call you instead, Caroline?"  
Carmelita started to understand what Isadora was doing.  
"Alright." she said, "If this is how you want it, Iggy."  
"That doesn't work as good." Quigley teased, joining the conversation.  
"What is happening right now?" Duncan whispered to himself. The last time they saw Carmelita, it ended with everyone crying and being hurt. Now they are acting like that didn't happen.

"Anyway, I don't have time for you cakesniffers." Carmelita muttered, "I'm really just looking for Penelope. My friend Penelope. I have friends."  
"We have friends too?" Klaus said, being very confused.  
Carmelita rolled her eyes. "It's no use talking to you. You are too stupid."  
"Thanks!" Isadora giggled. She was orignally going to say more than that, and maybe mention that one time she saw Carmelita sniffing on a cake. But she decided not to, because she was not in the mood to have another fight.

Carmelita walked away and the gang just stood there, completely in silence.   
Duncan was the first one to say something again.  
"This has been quite an eventful day."  
"Yeah." Quigley replied.  
"I kind of want to just have a day where nothing happens." Isadora added.  
"It's hard to fix that." Violet chuckled.  
"When you are bored, you are also safe." Klaus recited and everyone nodded.  
"But honestly." Isadora said, "Do you think Carmelita has experienced anything?"  
"What would Carmelita's worst fear be?" Quigley asked.  
"Maybe that all of _her_ privacy will be told to the world." Duncan suggested.  
"Yeah, we know luh-like zero about her really." Violet added, "She is re-really good at hiding her own life from the ruh-rest, I wonder how sh-she's doing it."  
"Probably never doing anything suspicious while seen and only doing it with closed windows and doors." Duncan speculated.  
"I think she's afraid of loosing her voice." Quigley chuckled.  
"Or afraid of not being able to sniff cakes!" Duncan added, giggling loudly.  
"Maybe she's afraid of not being seen!" Violet added, though she was not giggling that much.  
"Maybe she is just afraid of other girls in case other girls will kiss her." Isadora said in the most monotone voice ever. Everyone looked at her in a very questionable way.  
"What's that even supposed to mean?" Duncan asked.  
"I have no idea." Isadora whispered, "I just wanted to say something."

That made Violet laugh like crazy. Everyone, including Isadora, looked at her in deep confusion.  
"I'm sorry!" Violet cried, but continued laughing. "I-I-I-It's just s-so much th-th-th-th-that..."  
"Take it easy, Violet!" Klaus interupted, "You're stuttering more that usual!"  
Violet took deep breaths. "Too much. Happened. Overstimulated."  
"What?" Duncan said.  
"What Violet means is" Klaus explained, "Considering what has happened over the last days, it's easy to just crack up for the smallest thing because you get so tired."  
"Yeah, Duncan." Isadora said teasingly, " _duh_."  
"I just want to rest." Quigley added.  
"Me too." Everyone replied in unison.

Over the next days, not much happened. The gang saw each other, but didn't do much more than hang out at each other's houses, go swim in the lake and one time even went to see a movie together. It was like, when all five of them were together, nothing bad happened. It was when they were alone when things got out of hand. But even though it felt like things got better, there still was something lurking in the air. Something dark.

The Quagmire triplets sat in their living room, being very bored. They had just come back from a session with their psycologist, who miss Caliban, Neros assistant, had booked for them. It did not help much, since they really did not have much to say. Miss Caliban had fixed it after she heard they had a fight with Carmelita. They barely mentioned that to the psyocologist.  
"What time is it?" Duncan asked.  
"No idea." Isadora answered, rubbing her eyes.  
When the triplets were tired, anything could come out of their mouths and no one of the others would even react. Anyone who was not a Quagmire triplet though, could be very confused by their conversations.

"This couch smells like farts." Quigley said.  
"Our lives smells like wood." Duncan said.  
"When the wooden couch makes farts." Isadora said, "It looks like works of arts."  
"That was one good rhyme." Quigley chuckled, not even making eye contact with Isadora.  
"Do you think the clown will come back?" Duncan asked.  
"God I hope not!" Isadora blurted out in a low voice.  
" _I love clowns!_ " chuckled a child on the show that the Quagmires were watching.  
"How strange." Duncan said.  
"I love clowns too." Quigley said in a tired voice, "But now I don't because a clown was mean in the bathroom."  
"What are we even talking about?" Isadora giggled.  
"Caterpillars." Duncan replied.

When the Quagmires went to bed that night, they had almost forgot all the troubles about the clown and the kidnapped children. The Baudelaires had forgotten just as much, and went to bed smiling like nothing had happened.   
Like their sister hadn't disappeard.  
Like their parents still was alive.  
Like nothing evil could be near them.  
And maybe that was the thing that was so dark about it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, in the beginning I think I had some other idea what would happen in this chapter, but then I just forgot and it turned into this. I'm not quite sure what to write at the moment, though I do want to continue this fanfic.   
> Maybe it's time for the unfortunate losers to meet Pennywise together soon?


	13. The crackhead house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our losers go to Neibolt

Chapter 13: The crackhead house

Violet and Klaus had just seen a movie called "Zombies in the snow" with Isadora. Isadora's brothers was not interested in seeing the movie, and so she went by herself (not that she complained, though). They were on their way to eat some ice cream.

"What was your favourite part?" Klaus asked.  
"I liked the part where Gerta befriended one of the zombies." Isadora giggled, "And they danced on that fake cow."  
"Yeah!" Violet chuckled. "Hey, which flavour would you like on your ice cream?"  
"Not sure." Klaus said.   
"Yeah... there's so many good flavours." Isadora added. "I hope you can get multiple scoops."  
"Multiple ice creams scoops are expensive." Klaus explained.  
"Really?"

They got to the ice cream stand and looked at the prices.  
_1 scoop................25_  
2 scoops...............35  
3 scoops...............40  
"It's the weirdest prices i've seen." Violet sighed, "Why go from 10 more to only 5 more? It's not a system!"  
"Well..." Isadora chuckled. "I don't mind expensive prices. As long they have good flavours. That reminds me, which ones can you choose from?"  
Violet pointed at a list "Read over there. There's a lot to choose from."

Flavours:  
Chocolate  
Vanilla  
Strawberry  
Lime (out of!)  
Lemon  
Orange  
Mint (out of!)  
Rasberry  
Blueberry  
Watermelon

"How the fuck can they be out of mint?" Isadora blurted out, "No one likes mint!"  
"I think mint is fine." Violet said.  
Isadora blushed. "Oh. Sorry."  
"I really wanted lime." Klaus said, obviously disappointed.  
"Are you going to order?" the ice cream man asked.  
"Yes!" Violet said awkwardly, "One scoop of raspberry, please."  
"One scoop of lemon, please." Klaus ordered.  
"Two scoops." Isadora said and thought she sounded confident, "Rasberry and chocolate."

The three young ice cream eaters sat down on a bench. The ice cream melted pretty fast and all three of them got several stains on their clothes. In the middle of enjoying it though, they saw a poster hanging on the sidewalk.  
"Is that another child b-being missing?" Violet asked nervously.  
Klaus walked up to it and read. He then stayed silent for a while.   
"Klaus?"  
"Penelope."  
He held up the poster for the girls to see. The picture was obviously Penelope, a friend of Carmelita Spats.  
"Didn't... Carmelita look a-after her the other day?" Violet asked, even more nervously.  
"Yes..." Isadora nodded.

Just then, Duncan and Quigley passed by.  
"Hey guys." Quigley greeted, "How's it going?"  
"Penelope in our class has gone missing." Isadora said without even blinking.  
"What?"  
"Yes."  
Everyone went quiet for a while. All of them looked down in the ground. All of them except Quigley.   
"Neibolt." he blurted out.  
"Neibolt?" Duncan said, almost giggling. "The crackhead house?"  
"Yes."  
"What do you mean with that?" Klaus asked.  
"I think it's there...where It lives."

The gang started to walk, with Quigley in the lead. They had all somehow internally thought of going directly to Neibolt.  
"I saw a documentary yesterday." Quigley explained, "on mysterious happenings around the country."  
"This is why you stayed up so late?" Isadora asked.  
"Yes." Quigley continued, "It was kind of boring, but one thing caught my eye... the most mysteries near us... happened in this town."  
"What?" Violet said, looking a litte weirded out.  
"People die or disappear here six times more than the rest of the country. And that's just adults. Kids are worse. Way, way worse."  
They arrived at the Neibolt house when Quigley finished.  
"And people have believed it has something to do with the Neibolt house."

"So are we... going in or something?" Duncan asked, being very confused of everything.  
"Yes." Quigley responded with a confident face.  
"Spontaneously?" Violet said.  
"Yes."  
"I don't know if I like being spontaneous." Klaus added.  
Quigley looked him straight in the eyes. "But I want to do this. You don't have to."  
"Wait, Quiggs!" Isadora yelled. "I don't trust this house. I can go with you."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Nothing matters anyway. Let's do this."  
Isadora ran up to the front door. "Are you coming?"  
"I'll come too." Violet said and walked up to Isadora.  
"Alright, i'll come too." Duncan said.  
"Then i'll come too to not be alone out here." Klaus added.

They all slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Duncan started to sneeze because of the dust and Quigley tried to not get his clothes all dirty.  
"Well." Isadora said, walking around, "Nothing but darkness and dust."  
" _Help."_  
"You don't have to make such a high pitched sound, Duncan." Isadora teased.  
"It wasn't me."  
"Then who was it-"  
" _Help me!_ "  
Everyone went silent to locate the sound.  
" _Hello? Please help me!"  
_"It comes from upstairs!" Violet said.

Holding each others hands, they all walked up as carefully as they could. The stairs sounded like they would collapse at any minute.  
"Where did it come from?" Duncan whispered.  
" _Duncan?_ " called a voice. " _Is that you?_ "  
Duncan glanced at the left of him. In the corner in the room further away, was a girls head sticking out. She panted really loudly.  
"Penelope?" he asked.  
" _Help-"  
_The girl suddenly got dragged away, making everyone gasp. Their instinct told them to not investigate, but the other part of them wanted to know where she had gone.

 _Thud!_ Something crashed behind them. No one besides Klaus reacted to it.  
"Uh... guys?" he said nervously, "Did you hear that?"  
He was in the back and no one turned around. Suddenly, the floor started to crack.  
"Guys-"  
The floor opened up, making Klaus fall through and crash on a table.

No one noticed Klaus crashing, because they all were too busy investigating the room where the girl (that presumably was Penelope) get dragged away. They also did not hear a thing from the floor cracking. Something weird was going on in this house.   
"There's nothing in here." Duncan said.  
"That's strange." Quigley added, "We all saw it."  
"Where's Klaus?" Violet yelled and started to shake.  
"He was right behind us..." Quigley said and noticed the door behind them had been closed. He tried to open it... it was locked.  
"Is he still back there?"  
"Maybe there is another door!" Isadora suggested. She pulled a door open and could not see anything besides darkness.   
" _Turn on the light_ " a voice whispered. Isadora did as it had told her - and immidiately regretted it.  
A girl hanging from the ceiling, sliced through the stomach. Her legs were nowere to be seen. It was just a head, the upper body and two arms. Isadora closed the door in terror.

Klaus looked up. The table had broken apart, and so had his left arm.   
"Ow..." he cried.  
Then he heard a large thump. The sound got closer and closer.  
Eventually he saw a red balloon. It moved as if someone with very small feet held it and moved slowly. _Sunny?_  
The balloon started to levitate further and further up into the air. It was held by tiny little hands, why later showed a tiny little head and a tiny little body that wore a raincoat. Klaus was frightened for life.  
"Time. To. Float." said the little Sunny and disappeared as the balloon popped. Behind it stood Pennywise the dancing clown.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, two things.  
> 1\. The reason why it only says numbers and not "dollars" or "pounds" or anything is because I come from a non-English country and have 0 ideas about the money system there, so... yeah.  
> 2\. Even if they go to Neibolt, I never mention the town being named Derry. This is because, like with the money, and with asoue in general, it's unclear where the characters live. And I wanted to embrace that, even if in retrospect it is a little stupid maybe. Whatever.  
> Hope you liked this chapter anyway!


	14. Arguments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many swears is going to come out. Prepare yourselves.

Chapter 14: Arguments

　

"Get away!" Klaus screamed. His left arm hurt like crazy.  
"Come here, Santa Klaus!" Pennywise giggled, like a maniac.  
"No!"  
"Klaus!" a voice from the other room cried. That made Pennywise suddenly stop moving. The door got busted in by Violet, followed by Isadora who looked like she had made some weird karate kicks before the door was opened. They rushed in, only to back off when they saw Pennywise.

"Get away from him!" Violet yelled, tears of fright in her eyes.  
"Why?" Pennywise laughed.  
"Buh-buh-buh-because..."  
" _Buh-buh-buh!_ " Pennywise imitaded and started to show his teeth, who had grown larger. Violet stepped back a little more, and Isadora hugged her slightly for comfort.  
"Now Isadora, what will people think when you do that around other girls?" Pennywise said teasingly.  
"Duh-don't listen to it, Isadora!" Violet yelled. "I-i-i-it's not ruh-real."  
"This isn't real enough for you, Violet?" Pennywise said, sounding oddly offended. But then it giggled like a maniac. "It was real enough for Sunny!"  
Violet gasped. Isadora gasped. Klaus gasped. Pennywise screamed and ran straight to Violet, ready to attack. That's when everyone heard a splat.

Quigley and Duncan had come through the other door, and Quigley in panic had shoved a pole into Pennywise. It moved around to Klaus. Klaus screamed when he saw the pole hanging right through the clown demon's head.  
"I'll come _back_!" Pennywise shouted with a demonic voice and turned around again. Everyone manage to back off - except Duncan, who got sliced in the stomach by the pole.  
"Ow!" he cried.  
"Duncan!" Quigley yelled.

Quigley try to run after the clown, but it had disappeared as fast as it had appeared. So he ran back to his brother, hugging him tightly.  
"I'm fine, Quiggs." Duncan said with tears in his eyes.  
"No you're not you brave coward!" Quigley cried.  
"Klaus!" Violet screamed and bended down, "Yo-your arm."  
"It's gonna be fine." Klaus assured her.  
Isadora just stood in the middle, not knowing whether to go to her brothers or to Violet (and Klaus). She was too shocked of the event to even say anything.

"We should've never gone here!" Quigley yelled, running out of the house with his brother around is arm.  
"And who wanted us to go here?" Duncan screamed back. He screamed louder than he intended due to his belly hurting.  
"Well, my intention wasn't this!"  
"Then what the hell was it, Quiglefort?" Isadora ranted, wanting to join the fight. She only ever called him Quiglefort when she can't take what he is saying seriously.   
"I thought we could solve some of the mysteries or something!" Quigley said, not quite believing himself. "Klaus, you read this! It's all connected!"  
"I don't know what I read." Klaus replied without moving a muscle. "All i'm sure of now is that I my arm is broken."  
"But-"  
"Quigley." Violet said. "We are not in the mood right now."  
"But now we know where the clown lives!" Quigley protested. "Don't you want to investigate? Don't you want to _rescue your sister_?"  
"Of course." Violet said, with tears in her eyes. "But... i'm to wuh-weak right n-now."

This is where Duncan stepped forward.  
"Baudelaires." he said sharply, "I am sorry to burst your bubble. But your sister is dead."  
The Baudelaires looked shocked. No one said a thing.  
"Duncan Dylan Quagmire!" Isadora yelled, "What the fuck."  
"What? It's true!"  
"It's not polite to say those things!"  
"Oh, like you know how to be polite, miss Sassy Sappho."  
Isadora went quiet.  
"You're s-s-scared." Violet said slowly, "a-and we a-all are, but please D-Duncan. Take it buh-back!"  
"Why would I take something back that's true?"  
Klaus bit his lip."Just... _Fuck you_!"  
Duncan just chuckled with a mean glance. "Come on, siblings. We're going to go."  
"This is what It wants!" Quigley cried,"It want to divide us! We were all together when we hurt it! That's why we're still alive!"  
"Yeah?" Duncan said, "And I would like to keep it that way."

Duncan turned around and jumped slightly when he walked. He mumbled a lot while holding both his hands to his belly.   
"Sorry, he is probably hurting from his stomach aches." Quigley explained.  
"Well, my arm is broken!" Klaus yelled, "And yet I am not an asshole!"  
"He's got a point..." Isadora added.  
Quigley went silent.  
"Quigley..." Violet said calmly, "I know yo-your trying to help, b-b-but... we're not in the mood."  
"I know..."  
"Maybe it's best if we just take some time off." Klaus suggested. "All of us."  
"But the clown-"  
"Quigley." Violet had a stiff glance. "We need to forget. For a while."  
Quigley sighed. "Alright."  
"I hope it's not for too long, though." Isadora said, glancing at the Baudelaires. "It was fun hanging out with you."  
"Yeah." Violet cried. "It was. But this is only for a while."

Then all four of them went their separate ways. Everyone had tears in their eyes and felt like this was a very wrong decision.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than I hoped it would be?   
> It took so long to publish simply because I was lazy. There is no other excuse. I just got summer vacation too, which means I should have more time. Yeah, i'm just a lazy little lady.


	15. A man she trusted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Violet and Isadora meet up at the park without any of the boys.

Chapter 15: A man she trusted

　

It had been five days since the argument. It was the end of july and soon they would enter august. Everyone in the unfortunate loser gang had their own troubles.

Violet had a hard time coping with what Duncan had said about her sister being dead.  
Klaus had a broken arm that itched all the time.  
Duncan barely spoke, regretting what he had said.  
Isadora missed hanging out with the Baudelaires and planned on asking Violet to do something.  
Quigley could not sleep and was afraid if Pennywise would come back.

Things started to go back to how it was before it all began. Parents to the missing children seemed to act like nothing had happened. No search parties. No nothing. It wasn't right, and the losers could feel that more than anyone in town.

The phone rang in the apartment where the Baudelaires lived. Violet answered.  
"This is the apartment of O-Olaf" she started, realising she's forgotten Olaf's surname. She was hoping it was someone she knew and continued, "you are speaking to the foster ch-child Violet Baudelaire."  
A giggle was heard from the other end of the phone. Violet smiled. "Hello, Isadora."  
"Hi!" Isadora replied, sounding like she hadn't heard Violet's voice for years.  
"What do I owe the pleasure of hearing young miss Quagmire's voice?" Violet asked, feeling proud of not stuttering during the whole sentence.  
"Miss Quagmire wonders if the lovely miss Baudelaire would like to do something."  
"I am sure she will. She has missed the voice of the sapphire queen. Tell me, how's your brothers?"  
"They are quite well." Isadora said this with a little more boredom, like she could care less about her brothers.   
"Anyway." said Violet and changed to her normal voice, "We can take a walk in the park. Just you and me. No boys."  
"Really?" Isadora replied, sounding exited.  
"Yeah. I n-need some time away from home."

10 minutes later, Violet was tying her shoes.  
"Where are you going?" asked Klaus, walking by.  
"Out."  
"Where?"  
"To the park."  
"Alone or with who?"  
"Why do you ask so much, Klaus?"  
Klaus looked at his sister. "Can I go with you? I have nothing to do besides watch TV and itch my arm."  
"No." Violet said sharply.  
"You were talking on the phone before." Klaus smirked, "Are you going to meet the one you were talking to?"  
"None of your b-business."  
There was a small pause. Then suddenly, Klaus looked Violet straight in the eyes.  
"You're going to meet Quigley, aren't you?" he asked.  
"What? No!"  
"Oh, so it's Duncan! I knew it! He is going to apologise and you will accept it because you actually like him very very much."  
"The f-f-fuck?"  
"Don't lie to me, Violet." Klaus said and giggled.  
Violet stood up. She slowly went forward to her little brother, glancing at his broken arm.  
"If there is someone who likes D-D-Duncan very, very m-much..." she whispered, "It's you."  
"What?"  
"You heard me." Violet said, "Now I have to go."

Violet ran all the way to the park. She just felt like Isadora was a person she wanted to talk to right now. Besides, the two of them have never quite been alone together. Well, almost. One time when Violet was nine years old, she had been the last one out of school because she had to finish an assignment. She went out and found Isadora climbing a tree.  
"Isadora?" she asked and walked up. Violet remembered she had worn a blue dress that day, who her father had bought her. She felt so pretty. Isadora had worn a dress that resembled the dress of Wednesday Addams. She also wore a white bow in her hair.  
"Hello, Violet!" Isadora replied, giggling.  
"Why are you climbing that tree?"  
"I want to see if you can climb a tree with a dress!"  
Isadora had climbed up to a branch right above Violet's head. She then proceeded to hang upside down, her legs and skirt still being on the branch.   
"Be careful, Isadora!" Violet shrieked.  
"It's fine, i've done this before!"  
And the little Isadora rolled around and swung herself to the ground.  
"Ta-da!" she cheered. Violet giggled.  
"Are you heading home now, Isadora?"  
"I guess so. Esme, she's my foster mom now, she is very picky about time."  
"Is that so?"  
"Yep! And she is very fashionable."  
"She sounds really strict, Isadora."  
"Yeah, but she is okay. She sometimes wants me to wear ugly pink and yellow dresses, but I really love this black dress. I don't care so much about having a bow in my hair, because I barely notice it's there. I am not fond of my bowl haircut, you know my brothers have the same, but Esme says they are very in for triplets."  
Violet listened how Isadora got on and on about how Esme was as a guardian. Even if she didn't really care, she knew it would make Isadora happy if she listened.   
"Besides" Isadora babbled, "Esme is much nicer than miss Kasbrak who I had before."  
Violet started to wonder how it would be like if she never saw her parents again and had to move to a foster home. _She was lucky that probably would never happen._

Yet, here Violet was five years later. Her parents had both died in a fire and she had moved into a foster home. Her sister was kidnapped, probably dead, and she felt like everything was getting worse and worse.  
"Violet!"  
But there was still some hope.  
"Violet! Baudelaire! I'm over here!"  
Isadora ran up and greeted Violet with a smile. She was wearing white overalls today with a blue shirt underneath.   
"Oh, Isadora!" That was all Violet could say. She proceeded to give Isadora a long hug.  
"Has something happened?" asked a very concerned Isadora.  
"No." Violet sniffed, "I was just so glad to see you."  
Isadora blushed and the two of them walked around the park.

"It's funny." Isadora said, "I called you because I wanted to hang out, and then you wanted to hang out even more."  
"Yeah." Violet smiled, "I just felt like you were s-someone I needed to be with right now."  
"How come?"  
"Well... I have for the p-p-past few days just hung out with my brother. And y-your brothers... I didn't feel like hanging with them either. But you..."  
"I understand." Isadora took Violet's hand. "You know, I think Duncan regrets everything. He barely talks to anyone. He mostly just complains about his belly ache."  
"And Quigley?"  
"Quigley is just paranoid. He has nightmares and never leaves his guard down."  
Violet sighed. "This is why I didn't feel like seeing any of them. Duncan would just try to apologise while Quigley would convince me to go again. Then they would have argued with each other. I just can't cope with any fights right now. I just can't cope with _boys_ right now."  
"Tell me about it." Isaodora chuckled, but only slightly because she could see Violet was not in the mood.

They sat down on a bench and glanced through the playground on the other side. Not many children were there today, only some small toddlers in the sandbox. Violet glanced at one of the toddlers, who was dressed in yellow overalls with a white shirt underneath. The toddler also had a little bowtie in their hair. _Just like Sunny used to have._  
"I have so much memories of this park." Isadora said.  
"Same here." Violet sniffled, "It was one of the happiest memories I have left of my parents."  
"Violet." Isadora said calmly, "It was one of the happiest memories I have left of my parents aswell."  
Violet's eyes glanced. "My father used to help me climb to the top of the jungle gym." She pointed at a small wooden roof over the slide at the jungle gym. "There, I would jump down and he would catch me."  
"I was around four years old." Isadora said, "And you know how kids are. If the area is safe, they find the most unsafe ways to go instead. I used to climb on the swings, all by myself, and get up to the top of it. My parents freaked out and Duncan covered his eyes, while Quigley tried to climb too without success."  
"Klaus used to cover his eyes too when I climbed to any high spot."  
Isadora started to snicker. "Duncan and Klaus should get together."  
Violet looked at her in confusion, before bursting out in laughter herself.   
"I like hanging out with you. We should be alone more often."  
"I'd like that." Isadora giggled. And with that, she gave Violet a light kiss on the cheek.

"And what if I may ask goes on here?" someone asked. It was a man's voice, and the girls looked up to see who it could be.  
"Hello, Olaf." Isadora greeted with an awkward smile.  
"Hello, hello, hello." Olaf said in a very odd tone. "Violet, you didn't tell me you were going outside."  
"No, I-I... y-you weren't home."  
Olaf glanced at Isadora. "I've heard rumors about you running around the neighborhood. Charming all the girls. Making the good girls misbehave."  
"What?" Isadora growled, clenching her fist.  
"I could see I arrived just in time. I saw you up in pretty Violet's face."  
Violet looked up at her foster dad. Her guardian. _The man she trusted_. "Wuh-what do you mean?"  
"Violet, I told you not to fraternize with the Quagmires. Especially Isadora."  
"What has Isadora _done_?" Violet yelled, standing up.  
"This!" Olaf yelled back, "I saw you! She was straight up kissing you!"  
"On the cheek!" Violet protested, "What's s-s-so strange about-"  
"It starts on the cheek." Olaf interrupted, "Because she wants you to think it's nothing. A _friends kiss_. Then as soon as you know it, she'll kiss you on the mouth! And you will like it, because she has charmed you into thinking so. This wicked girl wants to convert you into lesbianism!"  
"Excuse me?" Isadora screamed and ran up to Olaf.  
"The temper. The looks. Everyone can see it." Olaf grabbed Violet, who instantly tried to escape his grip.  
"Let go!" Violet cried.  
Olaf bent down to Isadora. "I don't want a dirty girl like you touching the girl I have under my protection."

Olaf dragged a crying Violet away.  
"Isadora!" she yelled.  
"Be quiet, my pretty Violet." Olaf said sharply, "I don't want someone like you to spend your time with such a toxic young lady like her."  
Isadora stood there, paralyzed. She wanted to scream all the curse words in the world, run after and kick Olaf's ass... but she couldn't. She knew how it went with Carmelita and it would be even worse if she did the same thing to a grown man.  
She could feel the prescence of something dark near her, coming closer and closer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Olaf is a fucking asshole as expected.
> 
> Next chapter I think we will finally enter the sewers! I hope at least!


	16. Get together (in the sewers)

Chapter 16: Get together (in the sewers)

　

The phone rang once again at the apartment where the Baudelaires lived with their foster dad. Klaus answered it this time.  
"This is Klaus Baudelaire, who's calling?"  
"Hi Klaus... it's Duncan - don't hang up!"  
"I wasn't planning to." Klaus said slowly. Even if Duncan had said some mean things Klaus knew to atleast listen to an apology or an explanation.  
"I know I... you are probably angry with me, but... something has happened and we need your help."  
Duncan's voice sounded very serious. He took a deep breath.  
"It's about Isadora."  
"What?" Klaus said.  
"She didn't come home last night..."  
"Violet!" Klaus shouted. Violet came in, looking tired as ever and she seemed to have cried a lot.  
"What is it?" she sniffed.  
"It's Duncan. He said... Isadora didn't come home last night."  
Violet dashed to the phone. "Give me that!"  
"Violet?" Duncan said in confusion as she answered the phone.  
"Duncan, Klaus told me something about Isadora not coming home."   
"Yes... and I wondered if you knew anything about it."

Violet was quiet for a moment. Flashes of yesterday passed her mind.   
_Isadora and I were in the park. She hugged me as we laughed. She touched me as we laughed. She kissed me as we laughed. On the cheek. ON THE CHEEK. Then Olaf came. I cried. She cried._  
"Sh-she and I met yesterday, but..."  
Violet stopped. She had heard a familiar voice on the TV.

"Come with us to the sewers!" the TV host cheered. "And you can join the clown!"  
A clown appeared behind the host. A clown Violet knew very well.  
"Violet?" Duncan said slowly, still on the phone.  
"Turn on the TV." she replied sharply.  
"What?"  
"Turn it on."

Duncan turned the TV on. The TV directly went to the kids channel, despite no one in the house who Duncan knew would watch it. He was still on the phone.   
"Ok Violet, I have turned on the TV, now what-"  
"Join the circus!" cheered the familiar clown on the TV. Duncan stood paralyzed.  
"Quigley." he squeaked.  
Quigley walked in, rubbing his eyes.  
"What is it, Dunc? We have to-"  
The brothers both looked frightened at the screen.  
"Violet..." Duncan whispered, "are you seeing what we are seeing."  
"The clown." Violet cried silently, "I think..."  
"Does the clown have anything to do with our sister?" Quigley asked.  
"Everyone is welcome!" Pennywise laughed on the screen, "Yesterday, a little girl as old as thirteen joined me and the other children in the circus!"  
Duncan and Quigley gave each other a look. Quigley grabbed the phone.  
"The barrens. As fast as you can."  
Then he hung up.

Ten minutes later, the Quagmire brothers had ran outside their house to meet the Baudelaires. Violet and Klaus were on their way too, but knew they had to sneak past Olaf.  
"Why can't we just say we're going to meet the Quagmires?" Klaus whispered.  
"S-s-something happened yesterday." Violet sniffed, "A-a-and i'd rather not talk about it."  
"Is it about Isadora?"  
"Yes. And you know O-Olaf doesn't luh-like that."  
"Yeah, but was he that mean?"  
"Yes. He... f-f-forced me away from her. Told me I was not allowed to..."  
"I think I can picture what happened." Klaus said and placed a hand on Violet's shoulder.

After realising Olaf wasn't home, they could easily go out. The whole way to the place where they would meet Quigley and Duncan, Violet felt like hiding everywhere in case Olaf would find her again outside, asking where she was going. They passed the park where she just 24 hours ago had a pleasant conversation with Isadora Quagmire.  
"We're almost there." Klaus said, pointing at a small road that would lead to the place they would go to. Violet nodded as an answer.

"They should be here soon." Duncan said, looking nervously at the clock.  
"Duncan." Quiglet replied, "remember... you should apologize."  
"Yeah..."  
"For our sister. She is in there. We know she is."  
"And what if she is not?"  
"You think she's not?"  
"Of course, but... what if, Quigley?"  
Quigley took a deep breath. "It's not a chance we all saw the clown on the TV. It is the reason you have a bandage on your stomach. It is the reason-"  
"Klaus has a broken arm." Duncan filled in.  
"Not what I was going to say." Quigley kind of chuckled, "But yeah."  
"We're here!" Klaus shouted, running towards the brothers with a worried Violet behind him.

The four of them stood in silence together for a while.  
"Hey..." Duncan said awkwardly. "I'm... I'm sorry for-"  
"We accept your apology." Klaus said, smiling. "We have more important stuff to worry about. Right, Violet."  
"Uh-huh." Violet mumbled.  
"We should go in." Quigley added. "Before it's too late."  
"What are we excactly doing here?" Klaus said, still kind of confused of everything.  
Everyone was quiet.

"We are" Quigley began, "here to find my sister."  
"If Isadora is here." Duncan added, "we need to save her."  
"If Isadora needs saving." Violet said, "But we need to help her."  
"We are only in danger if we're alone." Quigley said.  
"But together, we are unstoppable." Violet added, smiling.  
"So what are we waiting for?" Klaus yelled. "We need to get in!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter shorter than I thought. Anyhow, next chapter will be shorter too.  
> It will be Isadora's perspective, and we will find out what actually happened.


	17. What actually happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What did actually happen to Isadora? You get your answer here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little short chapter. Longer chapters will come, I promise.

Chapter 17: What actually happened

　

Isadora didn't feel like going home. Violet Baudelaire and she had finally been alone for the first time in years, and then that _fucking_ Olaf came and took her away. All because she thought it was finally time to just do something more than talk. To give Violet a little kiss because she felt like she could be more intimate with her friend. They have known each other for years now and besides, lots of girls do that as friends. She didn't understand why Olaf came here and accused her for trying to seduce Violet or something.   
Isadora had always liked Violet, but she didn't understand why people assumed it was a romantic liking. Just because Isadora wasn't a stereotypical girl people said the weirdest things. Just because _she_ never liked a boy, just because _she_ was acting _ungirly_. Why of course she is ungirly, she only has brothers! And of course she doesn't have an interest in boys when she already have plenty of males in her home. That makes sense!

Isadora remembered the first time she met Violet. They were four years old and met at a daycare center. Isadora sat in a corner and hummed nursery rhymes to herself, because she had nothing else to do. She had grown tired of playing with her brothers, who happily played tag around the playroom. Over by the nearest table, a black haired girl in purple overalls and a cute little white bow in her hair, buildt a tower with blocks. Isadora thought it looked very nice, so she went up to tell the girl just that.  
"Hi." Isadora greeted. The girl didn't respond.  
"I just wanted to say that I love your block tower." Isadora said and smiled. Still no answer. Isadora didn't mind that, however. Duncan could to the same thing when he concentrated on doing something, so it was nothing to worry about. She just had to wait for the girl to finish.

While she waited, a small boy who looked similar to the black haired girl waddled up to her. He looked to be about three or almost four.   
"Violet." he said and itched his mouth. The girl didn't respond to him either.  
"Violetvioletvioletvioletviolet!" he squeaked, jumping up and down.  
"I don't think she wants to talk." Isadora explained to the boy. "You have to wait until she is done building her tower of blocks."  
"Okay." the boy sighed and ran away. That is when the black haired girl, who Isadora presumed to be Violet, looked up at her.  
"Thank you for telling that to him." she said.  
"I think your tower is nice." Isadora replied, smiling.  
"Thank you." Violet giggled. "That boy is my brother. His name is Klaus. He doesn't understand that I want to be alone sometimes."  
"But I knew you wanted to be." Isadora said proudly, "Because my brother Duncan does the same when he wants to be alone."  
"How old is he?"  
"He is four just like me. We are triplets. I also have a brother named Quigley. They are playing over there."  
"Do you want to crash my tower?" Violet asked, looking exited.  
"Yes!" Isadora exclaimed. "Can I do it now or do I have to wait?"  
"You can do it... now!"  
Isadora punched with her whole arm on the tower, making it falling apart. She and Violet laughed as the blocks flied everywhere.

That was nine years ago, almost ten. Things were different now.   
"Well, what is little Isadora Quagmire doing here?"  
And things started to get worse.  
"You can atleast answer me." Carmelita Spats said.  
"No." Isadora replied shortly. She proceeded to walk by.  
"Where are you going?" asked the annoying Carmelita.  
"None of your business."  
"You look like you just had a fight. How come?"  
"Again, none of your business."  
"But I want to know!"  
Isadora turned around and looked at Carmelita's forehead. "I want to know why _you_ feel like you need to know other peoples private stuff."  
"But Isadora, it's fun!"  
"No, it's not. Now please fuck off."  
Isadora walked with fast steps as far away from Carmelita. That didn't stop the annoying ginger haired girl to run after her.  
"I saw Violet Baudelaire crying loudly while her guardian dragged her away. Do you know anything about that? They were pretty close to where you were, so you must've seen something."  
Isadora sighed. "Everything i'll tell you is that Olaf is the worst human on the planet. Now please leave me alone."  
"Did you make out with Violet or something?"

Isadora clenched her fist, and was ready to verbally abuse Carmelita so hard that Carmelita had to take speech therapy. But then...  
_Now, Isadora, you wouldn't want to do that? Your secret has already been revealed, hasn't it.  
_Isadora could feel some kind of invinsible darkness coming for her. And she knew that voice. _Poster girl._  
_How I have missed you, Issy._  
I hate when people call me Issy.  
Oh, that's not true. I think someone you knew just called you that this afternoon and you did not react-  
Shut up! Shut up!  
Come with me baby. You don't need Violet. Only me.

"Yes." Isadora said.  
"You _did_ make out with Violet?" Carmelita asked, being a little shocked.  
"You're right."  
"I'm right?"  
"I only need you."  
Carmelita backed slightly. "What the fuck, Isadora?"  
"I don't need Violet."  
_That's right. Come with me to the sewers. We will laugh and dance and cuddle and-  
_"Yes." Isadora said out loud again. She knew the voice was only inside her head, but she did not care. Maybe this _was_ the only thing she needed.   
"Are you even talking to me?" Carmelita asked.  
"I'm going to the sewers." Isadora said sharply, and started to walk away with a almost paralyzed Carmelita standing behind.

Isadora walked silently all the way to the barrens, where an opening to the sewers lied. She knew what she was doing. She knew this was a way to lure her into a trap. But she didn't care. Maybe... just maybe...

She could be the one to lure It into a trap.

 


	18. We're all in this together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes deep into a sewer.

The four children had walked for about half an hour into the gross sewer.   
"You know we could all get sick by walking here?" Duncan asked, holding his nose.  
"Who cares?" Quigley replied.  
"Look!" Violet said and pointed at at something floating in the gross sewage water they walked in.  
"What is it?" Duncan asked, sounding very disgusted.  
Quigley dug his hand in the water to pick it up, which made Duncan make puking sounds.   
"It's a shoe." he said. "It looks like an expensive shoe. Like the ones Isadora wore when we lived with Esme Squalor, if you remember that, Duncan."  
"Is it as red as those shoes were?"  
"No. This shoe is brown..."  
Quigley said that very nervously, as if he was not sure at all if the shoe was brown.  
"What's wrong, Quigley?" Klaus asked.  
"I... it feels like I've seen this shoes before somewhere."  
"Okay?" Duncan said and smiled slightly.   
"Yeah, I think... what if someone of the missing children who owns this shoe, I mean-"  
"Quigley." Duncan said sharply. "I just want to get out of this sewage water."  
"Alright. But I think it's something written-"  
"Quiglefort!"  
"Oh no, are you going to call me Quiglefort too, now?"  
"I will if you don't drop that shoe."  
"Alright!"

After walking a little more in the sewer, the gang found a ladder which seemed to lead to a larger sewer tunnel underneath.  
"Oh _fuck_." Duncan whispered.  
"Duncan Quagmire!" Quigley giggled.  
"What?" Duncan muttered.  
"Little dunclet said a bad word!"  
"Do not call me dunclet, that sounds like-"  
"Quagmires." Violet interrupted. "Shall we continue?"  
"What if Isadora isn't down there?" Duncan said, sounding very disgusted.  
"And what if she is?" Klaus said.  
"Why does it feel like we have this exact conversation like, multiple times?" Quigley asked.

Suddenly, something echoed through the tunnel. It was a kind of giggle, but also in mixture of a scream.   
"What was that?" Klaus asked.  
"It sounded like a happy scream." Violet said, almost smiling to herself.  
"What is a happy scream?"  
"Klaus... i'll tell you later."  
"I think it came from down there." Quigley exlaimed and pointed at the ladder.  
"All the more reason not to go down there." Duncan said.   
" _Hello?_ " a voice echoed, " _Is someone there?_ "  
The gang wasn't sure if they should answer or not.  
" _Oh, it was nothing, my sapph. I thought I just heard some voices._ "  
"Sounds like they want to be alone." Violet whispered.  
"We should investigate." Quigley said.  
"What if it's a trap?" Duncan asked.  
Quigley took his brothers hand. "Duncan... it's not a trap if we know it is. And we'll protect each other."  
Then Quigley started to slowly climb down the ladder. Violet followed him, while Duncan and Klaus didn't move at all. They instead just looked at each other in confusion and nervousness.  
"Are you coming?" Violet sighed, "Or do you want to be alone so you can make out in peace?"  
"What?" Klaus said.  
"No, we would rather stay here so _you_ and Quigley can make out in peace." Duncan replied.  
"No one is making out with anyone, god dammit!" Quigley yelled. "We have literally nowhere else to go besides down here."  
"But Klaus can't climb because he has a broken arm!" Duncan sqeaked.  
"And Duncan can't climb because he has a belly ache!" Klaus added.  
"Okay then." Violet said, "Stay up here alone, in a yucky sewer instead of climbing down to a larger sewer who probably has some areas you can go on without being wet by graywater."  
"Alright!" Klaus said and ran after his sister. Duncan climbed behind him with a sigh, obviously not wanting to stay alone up there.

There was indeed a larger sewer tunnel at the end of the ladder. Not only was it bigger, but there was far less graywater than before.  
"Now, where did those voices come from?" Quigley asked in a confident voice.   
"Maybe it was just our imagination." Duncan said, "We could go back up again."  
"Yeah." Violet said in a sarcastic tone, "We all imagined the exact same thing. All our minds decided to imagine the same kind of happening. What a coincidence."  
"You're milking it, Violet." Quigley mumbled.   
"Shut up."  
The four children felt how this small dark space made them easily be stressed, tired and annoyed with each other. _Maybe this is what It wants. To make them slowly start to argue and decide to split up in the sewer tunnel, and the It can hunt them down one by one._

Another giggle-scream was heard.  
"Okay, that one felt more like screaming and less giggle." Violet noted.  
"So that one was not a happy scream?" Klaus asked.  
"No, Klaus."  
Quigley stepped forward. "Hello? If it's someone here, please show yourself. We are not scared!"  
A weird sound echoed through the tunnel. It was like a baby demon flying through the air.  
"You have to be clearer than that!" Quigley yelled.  
"Quigley." Violet said calmly, "Let's just walk forward. It's o-obvious the sound comes from there."  
Quigley didn't respond, instead just walked straight forward deeper into the tunnel.

" _Hey sweetie_."   
"Who said that?" Duncan asked cautiously.  
"It sounded like a female voice." Quigley noted, "Violet? The fuck?"  
"Why would I say 'hey sweetie'?" Violet pouted.  
" _What are you doing with that?_ "  
"Hear?" Violet whispered, "That's not my voice!"  
" _Take it easy, my little sappho..._ "  
"That voice sounded oddly nervous." Klaus said.  
" _Oh! Oh good lord!_ "  
"What is happening?" Duncan asked.  
" _You want to do it on my leg? Well, I should- oh! Oh my god!_ "  
Suddenly, it sounded like two people talking.  
_"Maybe we could start with kissing."  
"Oh no, you know I just go right on."  
"But-"  
"The mothers should've warned their daughters not to play with me. God knows what I do to the little innocent girls."  
"Uh-huh... but my leg is so..."  
"Quiet and let me kiss you."  
_A silent smack was heard.  
_"Mmmf! Your lips are so cold and rotten!"_  
"Mmmmmmmfff!"  
"Uh oh... I think i'm going to..."  
A wild scream was heard through the tunnel. It started to shake.  
"Guys..." Violet said slowly, "is someone running through the graywater?"  
"At a very fast rate?" Klaus added.  
The sound of a scream roamed closer and closer to them. Suddenly, a shadow of someting, or someone, was visible. It moved much closer.  
"Who are you?" Quigley asked.  
No response.   
"Shall we flash it with our flashlights?" Klaus asked nervously.  
"Let's give it a try." Violet said and took out her flashlight.  
"My. Leg." a voice said, which Violet thought was the shadow figure. She flashed the light on the shadow.

Only to see two wet shoes, with two pale legs attatched to them.  
"Yo-your legs..." Violet said, "They look completely fuh-fine."  
"She." the shadow said. "She took my leg and..."  
The shadow made a weird grunting noise.  
"Who are you?" Quigley asked again.  
"She called me... Poster. Girl."  
"What?"  
Violet slowly turned the flashlight upwards the legs. A skirt, a nice shirt... a neck pale as the legs. And the face. A girl around their age, with a bowtie in her hair, looking fairly normal.  
"I recogonize you." Duncan said.  
The girl suddenly looked at him with a smug face, which gave everyone the chills.

Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice coming from down the tunnel.  
"Oh, poster girl? I'm not done with your leg."  
Suddenly, "poster girl" started to look frightened. Like, _really_ frightened.  
"I'm coming for you, and only you!" the voice said in a flirting tone.  
Klaus looked at the girl in front of them.  
"Hey, is everything okay-"  
The girl suddenly turned pitch white and twisted her head. Behind her came a hand, who placed itself calmly on her shoulder. She screamed, and suddenly, she had sprinted before anyones eyes.

"What was that about?" Duncan asked.  
"No idea." said the familiar voice. "We were having such a nice time."  
Violet turned on the flashlight, whom she had accidentally turned off due to shock because the girl had gone off so quickly. The flashlight showed a dirty and oddly blushy, but otherwise fine, girl around thirteen.  
"Isadora?" she cried.  
"Correct."  
"Is it really you?" Duncan asked.  
"I don't know." Isadora said with a smug, "Maybe I am an imposter."  
"Okay it's definetly the real one." Quigley cried and hugged his sister. Her hug felt real, and not like some kind of space demon from another universe trying to act as her.

"Who was that girl?" Klaus asked when everyone had hugged her.  
"That, Klaus Baudelaire" Isadora explained, "was my fear. The poster girl."  
"But she was scared of _you_?" Duncan said.  
"Yeah."  
"How did you manage to do that?" Quigley asked, very impressed by his sister.  
"How do I explain it..." Isadora said and bit her lip. "It... you know, tried to lure me into a trap. Yesterday, after..."   
She looked at Violet.  
"...and incident with Violet and Olaf, I felt very hopeless for a while. And that's when It thought it was the perfect oppurtunity to lure me into the sewers. And for a second, I decided it was a good idea, because I had lost all my hope. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see if... I could lure It into it's own trap?"  
"Okay..." Klaus said, "and how excactly did you do that?"  
"I went to the sewers." Isadora explained, "and I started to call after poster girl. I told her I am ready. I got no answer, so I decided to freaking sleep here in case she came in the morning."  
"Wait, did you sleep right here?" Duncan asked.  
"No, I found a staircase between two tunnels that I slept under. Anyway, I woke up hearing a giggling voice and knew immidiately who it was. So, I naturally followed it and won't you know it, there is my dear poster girl."  
"Halleluja." Violet chuckled.  
"What did she tell you?" Duncan asked, "Were you not scared?"  
"Actually, I was... yeah, I was scared. Of course I was scared. But this time I could feel like I had... more control. And what she said... it was almost the same thing she said to me in my room when she crawled out of my poster. Only this time... I started to agree to everything she said. Trying to hide my fear. So... last time she tried to hold me stuck, which she also did this time. But this time I didn't fight or try to get out. I let her hold me, even telling her I liked it."  
"Did you like it?" Klaus asked.  
"No, dingus." Isadora pouted. "I faked liking it. And honestly... I think It believed it. But nothing happened, so told the poster girl to let the grip, because I knew It would react and try to scare me more. Which It did. The poster girl suggested whe should 'practise kissing', because the last time she said that I was in a terrified mood. But I said in the calmest tone I could that, yes, I would like to do that, much to her suprise. She started to back off a little, actually. I knew this was my cue."  
"Your cue?" Duncan and Quigley said at the same time.  
"I realised my worst fear wasn't just this girl that crawled out of my poster. It was... the whole idea of what people think of me. You know, even adults say the darnest things about me, because i'm not your avarage kind of girl. Because I tend to say inappropriate things sometimes. I've heard parents not wanting their kids, especially their daughters, to play with me. And i've been so scared that it actually is true."  
"It's not true!" Violet protested.  
"Yeah, I know." Isadora sighed, "But I wondered what would happen if I actually became my fear, you know. If I acted like people believed I would. So... I started to flirt with the poster girl, to put it lightly."  
Everyone kind of nodded, since they could picture what happened after that. Kinda.  
"But what was all that screaming?" Klaus wondered.  
Isadora giggled, "I kinda went overboard with my acting. So I cheered loudly as I jumped on her to escalate my flirting session."  
"What made It finally leave?" Violet added.  
"Well, I sat on the poster girls right leg so she couldn't move, and then... I..."

Isadora was quiet for a few seconds before snickering to herself.  
"She did complain about her leg when we encountered her." Quigley noted.  
"What exactly did you do on her leg, Isadora?" Violet asked with a suspicious face.  
"That is between me and poster girl."  
Violet and Quigley looked at each other and then laughing nervously. Duncan and Klaus didn't understand anything of what they talked about.

"It must've been so gross kissing that demon thing." Duncan said to Isadora.  
"Eh, I lived." Isadora shrugged.  
"You shouldn't listen to what people say." Duncan added, "I know the real you. And I know you're not... like that."  
"Like what?"  
"You know... people say you like... that you're into... but I don't believe them."  
"You have to be more specific, Duncan." Isadora said, even if she kind of knew what her brother was hinting at.  
Duncan took a deep breath. "People who say you're a lesbian, I don't believe them. I know you aren't."  
Isadora looked at her brother. Her kind, innocent brother, who was three minutes younger than her. Any normal day, she would have been delighted to hear this from him. But lately she's been wondering if that perhaps is wrong.   
Isadora glanced at Quigley, who gave her this face that said "I'm not going to say anything about this, but I may or may not disagree with our brother."  
Isadora then glanced at Violet, who had this look of "I'm not sure what to say, considering what happened yesterday".  
At last she looked at Klaus, whose face just said "I have no idea what the fuck is happening and I just want to defeat this clown demon thing".  
Isadora sighed, took Duncan's hand and looked forward in the tunnel.

"Thanks, Duncan."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a hard time describing sewers, as you notice.  
> Hope you enjoyed this part!
> 
> The losers club are closer to the big battle with Pennywise.


	19. The big fight

"Where are we even going?" Duncan asked.   
"We know It lives in the sewers." Quigley responded sharply.  
"Yeah, but I thought we were here to look for Isadora?"  
"Yeah, and now when we have found her we might as well find Pennywise the dancing clown and fucking kill him."  
"Great." Klaus said, "Do we have any weapons?"  
"No." Quigley whispered. He turned around and looked at everyone. "But I thought about what Isadora did to scare her fear off."  
"Seducing her?" Isadora chuckled.  
"You became your fear, Isa." Quigley explained, "And maybe... we can too."  
"Huh-how do you mean, Quigley?" Violet asked.  
"I don't know how." Quigley sighed. "But I want to kill this demon clown, or whater It is. And I want to do it now."

I silence, the unfortunate losers walked through the darkness, only lighting with their flashlights once in a while. Quigley held Isadora's hand and refused to let go. Isadora herself tried to hold Violet's hand, but Quigley dragged her too far away and Violet couldn't see Isadora reaching for her in the dark. In the back, was Klaus and Duncan who hold each others hands without noticing they did.

"Hey, guys?" Duncan suddenly called. "What's that?"  
He pointed on a round silouhette in front of everyone. Violet brought up her flashlight.  
"I-It's a... balloon?"  
A red balloon flashed in the childrens faces.  
"Why would someone leave a balloon down here?" Isadora asked. But no one had the time to answer her, as the balloon floated off.  
"The fuck?" Quigley exclaimed.  
"We should follow it." Klaus said. "Maybe it gets us to Pennywise. To It."  
Everyone nodded slowly.  
"Let's go, then." Violet whispered. She took Isadora's hand, much to Isadoras delight. Klaus and Duncan held hands, this time actually noticing they did. Quigley tried to hold Isadora's hand, but noticed how happy she got when she held Violets. He gave her a teasing smile and then glanced forward.

They slowly followed the balloon, who floated like it was being controlled by a mechanical device, like a toy car. It moved from right to left, left to right... and eventually, after several minutes, it popped right in front of their eyes.  
"Jesus Christ!" Quigley exclaimed.  
"I thought you were jewish, brother." Isadora said with sass.  
"But... look."   
Quigley pointed in front of them. The balloon had popped right in front of a large room. It smelled like a mix of mucus and rain and it was this weird fog over it. But it wasn't that who caught Quigleys attention. In the room, there was a large pile, or even a tower, of lots and lots of items. Childrens toys, dolls, bikes, tricycles, wet magazines and newspapers. There were also several jackets and shoes lying around.   
"What is this place?" Klaus asked.  
"Children's graveyard." Isadora whispered.  
"What?"  
Isadora pointed upwards, her pupils growing smaller and smaller. Everyone soon understood why.

On the top of all the objects lied bodies. Bodies of people that looked like they were the ages of three to fifteen. Some of them missed body parts. And some of them... _floated._  
"This is It's lair." Quigley said. "Isn't it?"  
"I believe so." Duncan nodded.  
Suddenly, they all heard a small whimper. Like the whimper a small child would give. Klaus and Violet stepped forward slowly. They listened after the whimper and followed it like they were hypnotised.  
They turned around the corner and started to tearing up. It was excactly who they think it was.  
"Sunny." Violet whispered, tearing up.

Sunny looked like she had hurt her little toddler self and wanted a hug and a kiss from her siblings for comfort. She missed one of her legs. Klaus wanted to give her a lolipop and kiss on her cheeks. Violet just wanted to hold her and hug her tight, and never let go.  
"Sunny... my little sunshine." Klaus sniffed.  
Sunny didn't respond. She just stared at her brother.  
"Sunny?"  
"Hug." Sunny said.  
"Of course I can give you a hug." Klaus said.  
"Viol?" Sunny said, looking at her sister.  
"I want to hold you tight and just take you home." Violet sniffed.  
Violet and Klaus walked forward. The Quagmire triplets snuck behind them, looking as anxious as ever.  
"I. Love. You." Sunny said with glowing eyes.  
"I love you too." Klaus said. He sighed, and started to cry.  
Violet started to cry too. She looked at her innocent baby sister. Then she took a deep breath.  
"But you're not Sunny."

Klaus and Violet grabbed Sunnys throat with one hand each. It didn't take long for Sunny to turn purple and collapse on the ground. The Baudelaire siblings looked terrified at their sister. They knew it wasn't her. But it was still hard.   
Suddenly, Sunny started to cough. And shake. The gang noticed how her missing leg started to grow back. Both her legs grew larger than a toddlers, as well as her arms. The long body lifted itself up. _This is not Sunny. This is Pennywise. It._

"Fuck." Duncan said nervously. "Fuck. Fuckedifuck. Fuck."  
"Kill It." Isadora squeaked. "Violet, kill it."  
"Why can't Klaus kill it?" Duncan asked, not even glancing at his sister.  
"Why can't Quigley kill it?" Klaus whispered in horror.  
"Violet could kill it." Quigley growled.  
"Isadora could kill it, she has all the rage to do it." Violet whimpered.  
"It killed your sister." Isadora protested.  
"You have scared it before!" Violet replied.  
"Maybe I should kill all of you instead." Pennywise said.

It jumped to Duncan, changing it's form from Pennywise to a zombiefied version of Miss Kasbrak.  
"Duncie..." It said with a distorted voice.  
"Duncan, don't listen to it!" Isadora screamed.  
Duncan panted, trying to not look in front of him.  
"Scare it!" Quigley yelled, "You can do it, Duncan!"  
"Don't listen to your siblings." Zombie-Kasbrak said. "They don't take their medicines. They get dirty and get colds too easily. Do you want to be like them?"  
"Yes." Duncan whispered.  
"How dare you say that?"  
"Because I am a naughty and unhealty boy. And I don't take my medicine."  
"Why, we need to get you to a doctor!"  
"Yes, we need to."  
It flinched. _This boy isn't scared. He will be._  
But Duncan never was. Not anymore. While It had tried to scare him, his siblings and the Baudelaires had gathered objects from the tower with the floating children. With a _whack!,_ Klaus had hit It in the head, making it fall to the ground.  
"Wow! It worked!" Klaus cheered.

It changed back to its clown form. The losers noticed how it started to become more aggresive. _Almost a little desperate_.   
"Looks like there's a fire!" Pennywise giggled and gestured at the baseball bat Quigley was holding, who started to burn.  
"Oh no." Quigley flinched, and threw away the bat.  
Pennywise jumped up. "Hope no one _dies_ in the fire. Hee hee haa haa!"  
The smoke from the burnt bat set fire to a fleece jacket, which made its way to anything you could set on fire nearby. Klaus was about to note how that was impossible, considering there was barely any fire on the bat, but he realised it was It's work.

At the moment, It started to cough up blood, which landed as perfectly red spots on Violet. As the blood ran down from Violet, from her already dirty dress down to her legs.   
"No worries, little Violet." Pennywise said in its teasingly demonic voice. "It only means you are growing up. You are going to be a beautiful woman who every man wants!"  
"Ew." Isadora commented.   
"Yeah." Violet said nervously. "E-Ew."  
Pennywise suddenly sounded like Olaf. "You worry me, Violet. You worry me a lot."  
Violet was shaking, but she tried her best to hide it.   
"Don't listen to It, Violet!" Isadora screamed.  
Pennywise walked slowly towards Violet. But then, It turned to Isadora.  
"Do you hear yourself. Trying to get young innocent Violet to get away from men. Trying to convince her that she only needs you."  
  
It still had the Olaf voice. Isadora just stood there in silence, like she was paralyzed.  
"Not talking, are we? Are you denying this?"  
Still no response. Pennywise creeped forward, closer to Isadora.  
"You're not fooling anyone. Have you confessed what you did to the poor poster girl?"  
It sounded much more traumatized when it said this.  
"Don't listen to it, Isadora!" Duncan screamed. It growled at him, which made Duncan back off.  
"Tell them what you did to the poor poster girl who just wanted to cuddle with you. Who _trusted_ you. Who just wanted some comfort in the dark sewers. And what did you do?"  
Everyone stared at Isadora. Pennywise was up in her face, it's hands ready to grab her and throw her in the fire that Quigley had tried to put out. Duncan stood in a corner, shaking. Klaus stood in front of Duncan, ready to sacrifice himself. Quigley looked anxiously around, wondering if he should put out the fire or not. And last there was Violet, who stared at Isadora right in the eyes with tears. _Tell It, Isadora. Tell It everything. It knows. I believe in you. Don't hide it. Don't fake it._

"I humped her leg."  
"Wait, what?" Duncan said.  
"It's true." Isadora panted. She slowly looked Pennywise in the eyes, even if she was terrified. "I sat on the poor little poster girls leg and I dragged myself back and forth."  
It started to back off a little.  
"Oh..." Klaus whispered.   
Isadora grabbed a stick she found near her.  
"But why did you do that to her?" Pennywise whimpered.  
"Isn't that what you expect me to do? Parents have warned me to not play with their girls, after all."  
After Isadora said that, she slapped Pennywise with the stick.

It didn't do much of a damage, as you can imagine. But it got It distracted just as long for Violet and Quigley to beat the crap out of it from behind.  
Violet punched It in the stomach.  
Quigley took the burnt bat and tried to leave burning marks on It's clothes.  
Klaus ran up and started kicking on It.  
Duncan joined in the kicking, screaming curse words and spitting on It.  
Isadora jumped on It's back and spanked it with the stick while biting it's neck.

It switched from Pennywise to miss Kasbrak. Duncan shook his head. _I don't get scared anymore.  
_It switched from miss Kasbrak to the Quagmires mother, starting a fire from her shoes. Quigley stepped on it, making the fire magically stop. _I don't get scared anymore.  
_It switched to Olaf. Violet just kicked Olaf in the crotch. _I don't get scared anymore.  
_It was getting nervous. In distress, It changed to poster girl. Isaodora slowly walked forward and held poster girl hard. She then proceeded to make out with It, not stopping until poster girl pushed itself from her. Isadora smiled teasingly. _I don't get scared anymore._  
It panted on the floor and looked at Klaus. This was the last chance. It transformed itself to Sunny again.   
"Kill?" Sunny said, which meant "Are you going to kill me again, big brother?"  
The innocent eyes. The clueless look of a toddler who just woke up not knowing where it was. Would make anyone just run up to take care of it.  
"I..." Klaus said.  
Quigley ran to the pile and grabbed a knife.  
"I can kill it, Klaus!"  
"Klaus?" Sunny said.  
"I..." Klaus repeated.  
"Klaus!" Quigley yelled.  
"I... don't get scared. Anymore."

Splat. The knife got right through Sunny's head.   
"Aah!"  
It transformed back into Pennywise. It smashed the night out of itself. But instead of going back up to fight, It just sat there. The losers gathered around it.  
"We aren't afraid anymore." Quigley said.  
"Now you're the one who is afraid." Isadora added.  
"Buh-because..." Violet started. She looked at her friends and family. "Because you are going to starve. Big time."

Pennywise crawled itself as far away as it could. Suddenly, It began to shake.   
"Fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh..."  
A puddle of... something dripped out of the clown. It was like It melted. Melted away.  
"Fear."  
Suddenly, a high pitched scream and a small _poof!_ was everything the losers heard. Before Pennywise the clown was gone.  
"Oh fuck, where did it go now?" Isadora groaned.  
"Look." Duncan said. "The kids are floating down."  
Everyone looked at the dead corpses, slowly sinking down to the ground.   
"I think we... defeated it." Quigley said. But no one really paid attention.

They were all focused on Violet and Klaus, sitting together in silence. With tears in their eyes, they held up a piece of clothing. A small, yellow raincoat.  
Everyone bent down, hugging them.  
Everyone cried.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! Maybe not the best, but I still tried to write is as good as possible. It could be better, but it could also be worse.
> 
> Now there is only one chapter left! It's been a pleasure writing this.


	20. The sacred oath

It was the day after the big fight. The sun was shining over the field that the five unfortunate losers were about to gather in.   
Violet and Klaus came first. They had come home teary eyed the day before and Olaf looked at them like they were sick. For the first time in a long time, Violet didn't feel anxious around her guardian. Olaf had asked why she cried, and she just sharply answered, without stuttering at all:  
"Nothing important. Bye."  
Then she and Klaus walked forward, ignoring Olaf yelling after them. Violet felt like she could live in the apartment much more easily, and Klaus felt like the tense feelings that had been in the air since Sunny's disappearence, had slowly faded away.

A few minutes later, the Quagmire triplets arrived at the field, greeting their friends. They had come home the night before like nothing had happened at all. Nero didn't ask much, and neither did his assistans miss Caliban. Miss Caliban simply asked where Isadora had been and Isadora just shrugged and said she forgot to tell everyone she spend the night with Violet. Quigley smirked as she said that and felt like he almost forgot what had just occured hours before.

"Hi everyone." Duncan said as they sat down in the grass.  
"Hi." Klaus mumbled, smiling at Duncan. No one really knew what to say.  
"Do you guys remember everything that happened yesterday?" Violet asked after a while of silence.  
"I do..." Quigley said slowly. "I think. I mean, who could forget?"  
"I have started to forget." Violet said. "I remember us fighting and walking in the sewers... and..."  
"I don't even remember how I battled my fear." Isadora sighed.  
"You became your fear." Quigley said. "Right?"  
"Right..."

Violet suddenly stood up. In her hand, she had a broken glass, which she had found on a smashed bottle.  
"S-Swear." she said. "If It isn't dead. If it ever comes back... we will come back too."  
Everyone thought for a second. Isadora was the first to stand up.  
"I swear." she said. She then held her right hand in front of Violet and nodded. Violet nodded back. She took the broken glass and dragged it fastly through Isadora's hand, making it bleed.  
"I swear." Quigley said, and stood up too. Klaus and Duncan looked at each other with doubt, but stood up too.  
"I swear." they said in chorus.

After Violet ripped the glass through everyones hands, she closed her eyes and looked at her own right hand.  
"I swear." she whispered and dragged the glass through her hand as fastly as she could.  
Then, everyone took each others hands and stood in a circle for about a minute.

"So..." Quigley said after the minute ended. "How about we do something fun?"  
"Like jumping from the cliff into the sparkling water?" Isadora suggested.  
Violet took Isadora's hand and smiled.

"Nothing would make me happier."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it is, folks!  
> Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I don't know if I ever will do a sequel to this.
> 
> Thank you for all the loving comments, it helped me continue writing this. Love you all!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, i hope this will lead somewhere! I originally thought of Pennywise just killing Sunny right away, but I got too sad because I really don't want Sunny to get hurt… and it adds a little mystery to it if Pennywise kidnaps her and makes Violet and Klaus have a motivation to continue investigating later in this fanfic…   
> Well, we will see how this will play out!


End file.
